


Nightmare Victory

by ChingKittyCat



Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Evil, For Me, Gen, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24173110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChingKittyCat/pseuds/ChingKittyCat
Summary: Meta Knight has died.-Rated Teen for overall edgy tones.[Fic Art]
Comments: 27
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

The plan had gone exactly according how to eNeMeE had envisioned it. The grandeur, the spectacle, the stakes, all of it was in place and all of it checked the boxes off of for his perfect final confrontation with the poor little man he'd so stubbornly wrapped himself around for so long. He'd pushed, and he'd pushed, and he'd pushed on against eNeMeE for so long, but now.. After so much turmoil, with their planet at stake, one mistake proved to be one too much, and Meta Knight had fallen to the wizard.

He'd shown vulnerability and paid the price with his life. eNeMeE'd thrown the corpse like a bouquet down to the knight's friends and witnesses to his murder, as if whoever was to catch him would be next. He'd watched some few quiver, lips trembling as tears formed. He'd watched as others rushed to attack him, only to be batted away like flies and squashed just as easily.

It was so easy. It was a true curbstomping, and by the end, all that was left was the whistling wind, eNeMeE, and the bodies of both those who'd run desperately from him, and those who charged at him in blazing, justice-filled fury. eNeMeE'd watched as those same people, some of Meta Knight's old comrades who were summoned from beyond the grave as spirits of light, disappeared miserably into muddled light and twinkling sparkles.

eNeMeE didn't know who most of the people among the newly deceased were. He'd seen them, he'd heard their names, but they didn't matter to him, so he'd simply brushed them aside in his mind and in the real world. They were blocking his view, and he'd preferred to retrieve his prize now that the battling was all over. He gingerly plucked Meta Knight from the darkened battleground, holding him in his palm. He limply sat there, as one would expect a dead person to do. Wasn't very active, that was for sure.

"Well, well, well. Look at what's happened. I win. You lose. You're dead, and y'know, you should've predicted this. You really have no one else to blame for this but yourself." 

eNeMeE turned the knight over with his fingers to see the knight's face. He'd examined the mask, admiring the lack of any sort of glow beneath the visor. Even when Meta Knight slept, he'd had a dim glow of those yellow eyes. Now, it was nothing but pure blackness. 

"Was it the torture? Did you really get that weak enough to die? Well, that's how I know I did a good job. It's not torture without some effects. Plus, rushing into battle, oh that was great. I really didn't give you much of a choice, though, did I? That's why it was so good. From torture to fighting, no rest time. Except maybe a little bit. But really, what's 'enough' of a rest after being tortured?"

eNeMeE closed his hand around the dead Star Warrior, thinking momentarily, humming.

"I don't know if I want to squash you into a juice or not. I know I always said I wanted to do that, but now I really genuinely don't know. Maybe I should just put you in a jar and keep you in there, on my desk. Preservative jar, I mean. Never actually been a desk guy myself, I don't actually have one, but that's neither here nor there. Maybe I'll just have you stuffed and put you on display in a museum. People would come from miles away to see you and learn about how badly and miserably you and your stupid little friends failed, and how when you died, so did all the hope in the universe. Oh yeah, I'm liking the sounds of that. That's a good idea. I'll get a couple paintings commissioned for it too, it'll be a whole exhibit. Maybe I'll take all your friends."

He'd looked around at the aliens around. None of them really caught his eye. He'd mercilessly slaughtered them like the worthless little gnats they were, and hadn't really bothered to leave them quite so untouched like he had with Meta Knight. He wouldn't want to be whoever had to put all these guys back together, it'd be like putting together a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. It really just wasn't his idea of a good time-waster, to be honest.

"Nah, I'll leave that for someone else to do. I'll just take you, and someone else can pick them up. For me. It helps the economy, you know. Gives people things to do in times like these. Usually these sorts of murdering start a 'recession' but it was only, what, twenty people? I don't think it'll be that big a deal unless I destroy your planet too."

eNeMeE looked over to Gerath, who'd been floating off nearby in circles. The meteor was quite the loyal employee, and though the fellow was a tad bit slow, it was a very hard worker. eNeMeE really appreciated its work, which is why he snapped his finger at the meteor and pointed towards the distant star that was Meta Knight's old planet.

Gerath had taken a moment, but slowly and surely, it went where directed. eNeMeE snorted in satisfaction, knowing he'd soon have a whole other planetary genocide on his hands. Oh, he hadn't done one of those in so long, it was going to be so good. He should probably go collect some things for his new exhibit before Gerath hit, of course.

"Well, there it goes. And there goes Popstar. Forever. I win." eNeMeE'd chirped.

A silence, then the clack of two boards signaled the end of filming.

The Waddle Dees who'd been taping the whole event had begun to pack up and load their things into space-vans. They struggled with their camera equipment as they began to get out of dodge. A few Waddle Dees had begun to work on gathering the bits and pieces of viscera on the wizard-constructed, dark, jagged stone battlefield.

They seemingly had nothing to say and nothing to feel about the situation, seeing as how he'd spawned them himself. They were efficient and sweet about the detail of cleaning up after their lord and creator. 

"I want these guys stuffed and put up as museum pieces, so don't mess them up. You're all disposable, I can just make you disappear in a flick of my wrist, and don't think I won't." 

eNeMeE'd warned, still holding Meta Knight in his hand. He'd see to it himself that Meta Knight was treated the way he'd wanted, and that everything from here-on out was perfect and to his standard. He had enough money and magic to make the universe spin, so he'd be getting whatever he wanted when he wanted. And right now, he wanted a master in taxidermy.

* * *

The exhibit was done in days, because he'd commanded it. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of pieces of art and paintings were produced to hang in the hall commemorating the battle. Each one hand-selected by only the finest art critics and every single detail being perfected, all that was left were the 'statues' of the heroes. eNeMeE'd rushed the other ones. He didn't care about them. They got out, they were fine, and they were put in place. 

Meta Knight got the slower, more intricate and focused job. It took him longer to be finished, but he was finished all the same. He was put in a heroic pose, sword thrust upwards and wings extended to show his bravery and his courage. It was nothing short of heroic. Of course, they had to take his real sword and put it into a protective case. The one he actually held now was a mock one.

The exhibit was one dedicated to the television show they were all from, the one that NME had broadcasted for over a hundred episodes on one of his very many 'reality tv show' channels. It was relatively popular, and it was a great advertiser for the monsters he had. Not that he cared too much about the show, or the cross-advertisement. All that mattered was that he'd came in at the series finale and destroyed everything, like he wanted. Sure, it'd be a bummer ending to the series, but it sent a message.

eNeMeE could not be defeated, even by the most bright-eyed heroes and weathered, war-tattered veterans. He was unstoppable, and no one had a single chance in the universe to take him down. Meta Knight had Galaxia. Kirby had the Star Rod. They all had the power of friendship. They even had magical rainbow platonic love lasers, and all four of those things hadn't done _anything_.

Galaxia'd been already useless on him because of his strength, he'd just grabbed Kirby and snapped the Star Rod before it could be used, and the power of friendship? Laughable! All of it was disgraceful. Now, all that was left was this fantastic exhibit, complete with gift shop. Fans of the show could even go inside some of the locations from it! Like some houses, parts of the penguin's castle, Meta Knight's room, the room where Meta Knight watched television, Kirby's little home.. Yes, it was almost life-like. Sure some fans would have fun posing next to the 'statues' of their favorite 'characters'.

The company held a party at eNeMeE's request. The celebration continued for days, with mortals throwing back increasingly strong-scented drinks, and eNeMeE'd enjoyed himself alongside them— though, at request of CS, he'd stayed away from certain drinks. He'd broadcast messages of his victory across the company with the series finale of the show, hearing of the outrage from the loyal fans with a delicious, smarmy attitude and a wide sneer. They were entitled to their stupid, fluffy opinions, but nothing was changing that ending.

Nothing was changing how he felt either. All his problems were solved, his final challenge overcome! Now he could run his company in peace, be as lazy as he wanted! Well, to be honest, he could do those things before too. But now there was an extra amount of how much he could do all those things! It just felt so absolutely freeing, like getting a big project finally done. Now he could move on to another chapter of his life.

But after the parties had finally ended and the company had returned to normal routine, eNeMeE had taken to the Dream Realm to find something to do. Amongst the long halls of doors, each one leading to a different dream from a different sleeping person, he'd found nothing had sparked his interest. No, not a single person was worthy of his presence in their mind. So, instead, all he did was mass-cast spells that night.

As he watched CS do his work the next morning, leaning over his shoulder and listening to the scribblings of pen on paper, he found nothing interesting about that either. CS was never a very interesting guy unless he'd put on that hammy 'I want to sell you something' persona. Otherwise he was just a crabby, boring businessman with too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

"Now that your little pet project is out of the way," CS had remarked while not looking up from the reports delivered to him, "maybe you can focus on something more important, sir."

CS seemed to realize something, then turned around to look at the wizard.

"Not that they weren't important," CS immediately became apologetic, "they were very important. It was a very successful television show, had lots of good marketing, and it was an amazing, long running series everyone liked, up until the end where you uh, killed everyone. Which was a very good decision, makes a nice message." 

The wizard watched on in silence as the little salesman continued on babbling. eNeMeE thought of all the art he'd received, the recognition his reality tv show had gotten, and how miserable it made the remaining hopefuls of the galaxy. That was the whole point of it.

"I think, in my opinion, it's time for you to be doing something new, maybe focusing more on monster production or monster designs. You haven't made a new monster design since before I was born. And our stocks are down after the destruction of Popstar. By one ten-vigintillionth of a percent."

"I don't care about numbers unless it's my bodycount, catboy." eNeMeE huffed and waved him off. "Besides, these sorts of things happen. Normal flow of the economy. It'll fix itself."

"One ten-vigintillionth may not be the highest reduction in our stock prices, but it's still closer to a one percent downfall than anything else in recent years. It also means millions and millions of dollars are flying out of the company. The investors just aren't happy right now, so please, sir, can you make them happy. Just go and design maybe one, two new monsters. Some easy to like ones?"

"You want another Crab?"

"No, I- they don't want another Crab, sir. Or another Cobgoblin, or Lobzilla, or any of those. Another _Wolfwrath_. Something with mass market appeal. Make something generic and cool, and easy for people to enjoy."

He didn't think Wolfwrath was generic, but.. Well, then again, it was just kind of a red spiky dog. All of his other designs were far more abstract and harder to latch onto emotionally. Who out there would be more attached to monsters like Belly Buster or Blocky in comparison to Wolfwrath? Even Masher wasn't as well liked, and it was supposed to be the strongest in his repertoire. Not that it was even really a monster, to be honest, they just branded it as such. He didn't even make it; it was just a really strong robot. 

"Since when were you part of my design team?" eNeMeE huffed.

"Since I have the ability to look at the stocks and talk to you about what they mean. Like you said, you don't seem to care about anything number-related. We need a new monster to freshen up our catalogs. Please, sir, try to make something new."

Though eNeMeE growled at the salesman, flashing fangs that just not but a few days ago were sunken into innocent, heroic skin, CS didn't flinch. Well, actually he did, and he was absolutely piss-scared right now telling from the fear that was now flooding into the wizard's mouth, but he still did not falter in his opinion. He stared the demon down and kept at it, despite being afraid.

"Fine." eNeMeE backed off. "I'll make a new monster. I'll take as much time as I want to make it, and I don't want you whining at me about how long it takes. I need to find my artistic _muse_. You can't rush art, and I'm the highest form of artist. I make life out of nothing, and you just can't rush that. Also, I'm trying to get more into sounding pretentious, so I think that sounded good. Good in a bad way. There's nothing more evil than sounding very, very pretentious. What do you think?"

"Very pretentious, sir."

"Perfect."

* * *

Any good design started with a base. eNeMeE had browsed his zoo for a good base, finding he'd wanted the new monster based off a cat. If a generic dog did the trick, then so should a generic cat. The design process from there was full of trial and error, as he pictured the creature he wanted in his mind, summoned it into reality in an exact one-to-one living creation, but he'd quickly become dissatisfied.

The appeal of his older monsters was that they were used in the war, against actual veterans and actual innocent civilians. Some newer ones had to work harder to get any degree of infamy, because everyone wants an experienced war monster, not some home-grown battle-ready creature. It was like the difference between food with locally grown ingredients made by a qualified chef and something microwavable. Everyone agreed the former was better tasting, unquestionably. 

Every single part of the monster was up for scrutiny. What sort of cat did he want to base it on? How could he make it different than the other monsters he had? Did it have a gimmick? Did it have some sort of control over the elements, akin to how the previous monsters— like Fire Lion— did? Which element were it to control? There was so many variables, but that was half the fun. The other half was trying to make it fit, style-wise, into the rest of his portfolio of living weapons.

eNeMeE pictured one specific scenario in his mind. How would Meta Knight fight this new monster? What would he say about it? Would he think it was a worthy opponent, something to be feared, or would he be more passive of it's abilities? The image of Meta Knight fighting- Wait, why is he just thinking about having Meta Knight fight it? He could just go into Meta Knight's dreams and make him fight it, get his opinion, and see what could be worked on.

"Oh. Wait.." eNeMeE said out loud, before putting on a rather thoughtful face.

Meta Knight's dead now. That wouldn't work. eNeMeE briefly entertained the idea of finding some GSA stragglers and pitting them against this new monsters, but to be honest, it just wasn't the same. Meta Knight had years of experience with both war and with the wizard himself. He was an unparalleled person in general. There was no comparison, and just grabbing some rando with a sword off the street simply was just an insult to the knight's integrity as a torture-worthy opponent.

"That's annoying. _Now_ he decides to be dead, of all times, when I need him to do something for me. Of course, like always, he doesn't consider how _I_ feel. How am I supposed to pit him against life-or-death situations when he's dead just because I killed him? Just inconsiderate of him, to be honest."

eNeMeE sighed melodramatically to himself, with the blank stare of his half-envisioned cat monster looking up at him from his gargantuan metal palm. It was an empty, thoughtless stare, devoid of emotion. How edgy it was, looking at him like that.

"Oh, you just gave me an idea. If Meta Knight's going to be so inconsiderate about how useful he is to me when monster-making.."

With barely a movement from the wizard's other hand, an exact mock image of Meta Knight was produced. There, live in the flesh, a perfect replica. Minus the whole ability to form any thoughts outside the few personality traits eNeMeE'd assigned to him.

"I have to do everything myself, as always. Now, how about you go ahead and fight all these guys I spawn for me."

The monster knight nodded obediently, leaping off of eNeMeE's hand and drawing his sword, waiting for his opponent to join him. And it did. And they fought. And it was.. A fight. That eNeMeE watched. But it honestly wasn't very fulfilling. Sure, it was exciting to watch Meta Knight fight, but it didn't have the same feeling he got when he saw the real one do it. 

It was just a mockup, just a copy that he'd made for monster testing, it couldn't stand up to the real thing. The real Meta Knight would kill his double in a few seconds without batting an eye, it wasn't comparable to the real deal at all! eNeMeE'd watched from a spawned couch, claws scratching boredly at the cushion, leaving rips empty of fluff. 

Though the Meta Knight had lasted through the battles, though the monster had gone through multiple variations until it was refined into something that could beat the clone, eNeMeE was unsatisfied. He'd watched as the cat pounced and finally pinned the knight under its claws, winding up for a final killing blow. He watched as it landed, and the clone disappeared into cloud of magical smoke, returning to its owner.

"Meta Knight wouldn't die that easily." eNeMeE remarked. 

He spawned another Meta Knight. He hadn't made the other one with the capability to be tired, but perhaps the wounds had just been too much. He couldn't feel pain, eNeMeE hadn't allowed it either, but maybe they were. Meta Knight wouldn't just roll over and die.

After a long fight, again, with nowhere to go, the cat bested the spawned knight again. The wizard growled darkly, a grimace crossing his face.

"It's no wonder he's not winning, this is not a realistic situation." The room they were in was a completely flat, featureless and piece-less chessboard, floating in the middle of space. "Battles with monsters don't happen on a chessboard, they happen on earth and ground and dirt. There's things to run off of and an environment to exploit."

eNeMeE conjured a new plane from his mind. A charred battlefield, made of stone, earth, and dust. No plantlife. Something straight from the war. He plucked his two monsters and placed them in. They fought. Meta Knight died.

"No." eNeMeE hissed, and he spawned a new one.

They fought. Meta Knight died. The wizard smashed his fist into the arm of his couch (which he'd slowly been sitting up more straight on as the fights continued) seeing the knight fall and return to him. 

"Meta Knight wouldn't die so easily! It's unrealistic!" 

eNeMeE was one decibel short of roaring, which the cat monster ducked its head down for. It backed from its creator as eNeMeE'd gotten up, steamed enough to keep his fists balled and a terrifying, snarling expression.

"Meta Knight is _not_ a wimp, nothing can- no one other than me just kill him off like that! Nothing! You are nothing compared to him, all you can _realistically_ do is incapacitate him! Nothing is a match for him other than me, that's why _I_ was the one who killed him!"

The cat did not make eyecontact with its furious master as he swatted it onto its side, onto the floor. It didn't get up. It wasn't fearful, it wasn't in pain, it was just obedient. The wizard grabbed his creation harshly, digging his talons into it as it limply let its cherished owner dictate it however he pleased. 

"You are _nothing_. Compared to me, compared to him. No one gets to kill him. I killed him. _I_ killed him! Do you understand!? The only reason why you're winning is because it's some bootleg _clone_! The real one has a deadly sword and a ruthless attitude! I should know that best of all, and you wouldn't stand up to him at all! Only I was able to, and all of his little _friends_ too! Understand!?"

The monster gave nothing in response to him before he dropped it onto the floor. It hit the ground with a dull thud, not a sound of pain escaping its mouth. eNeMeE's snarls intensified as it got up as though it was uninjured. It awaited the next fight, the next order, and the next movement.

He didn't give it any. Instead, he simply dissolved the entire room's environment and left the monster there. He whisked past Quality Control and the other similarly named lackeys who _were_ there to test the monster (but had inadvertently just became witnesses to the wizard's tantrum from the doorway), leaving them to deal with the worthless creature he'd left behind.

* * *

"I thought I told you not to bother me unless it was important. Can't you see I'm busy?"

The wizard's disdainful look made CS stare directly at him, at the room around him, and then at the television his boss had glued his eyes for the longest time until the little man had come in and cleared his throat about ten times, very loudly.

"Yes, well, I hate to interrupt your TV time, sir. But reviews on the new 'Snocelot' are out. Stocks are up again. I came by to say you did a good job."

"You think I need your praise?" 

The wizard snapped back, making his little assistant grip onto his clipboard a bit harder. He wasn't some soft, insecure teenager who needed to be coddled on his ingenious designs. He knew they were good, he didn't need some mortal's pat on the back, regardless of who they were.

"Well, I figured you'd appreciate the news. Seeing as how you've just sealed yourself away from the rest of civilization, I also figured you hadn't heard anything about it and would probably like to know."

"I don't care." eNeMeE'd responded quickly.

"You should, it's your livelihood."

CS took a look at the television once again, seeing an older episode of 'Kirby Right Back At Ya' playing. CS did not hold back his grimace or confusion as the whistle-y voices of angry leftist children permeated the room.

"You really should be doing something more productive, if you don't mind me saying." CS shrugged. "There's people you could be committing atrocities on, evil laws you could be signing into place on planets, people you could be exploiting.."

"I'm doing research." eNeMeE responded plainly, wiping his face with his hand. A few dull scratches sounded as his talons scraped against his lips, smearing the ice cream bits that hadn't been lapped up off them.

"Yes, I'm sure you are, sir."

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No, sir, not at all."

"Well, then you should know that I'm doing research and it's important." eNeMeE pointed to the door lazily with his free hand. "So, get. I've got stuff to watch, and like, hundreds of episodes too. So, out. Now. Go."

"I'll be back when somethings needs your attention, sir."

"Just forge my signature onto things."

"That's illegal. You'll sign them yourself." 

CS said, as though he suddenly cared about what was illegal and what wasn't. Sure, what they were doing was technically legal, but that's only because planets had bent to the wizard's will and allowed him to take what he pleased in exchange for his generosity and mercy. CS wasn't one to lead the charge towards legality, being how he wanted child labor and mandatory hundred hour work weeks so badly.

"Leave." eNeMeE spat.

And so CS listened, finally getting out of eNeMeE's nonexistant hair, leaving the wizard toiling internally about the borish paperwork he'd probably have to sign (without reading) in the coming days for projects he couldn't care less about.

But whatever, it didn't matter right now. eNeMeE had to watch television to see exactly how Meta Knight fought. The ways he sliced, how he diced, how full of energy he was and how he'd handled himself.. eNeMeE thought the copies he'd made were perfectly apt to, well, copy those abilities. But they weren't. There was no comparison, even if they did the exact same thing the real deal did. He was different. He couldn't be properly replicated, he held himself differently. His personality poured into his moves, it gave him a certain weight.

He was real. They were fake. He was dead, and they could be brought to life at any moment.

eNeMeE had clawed restlessly into the cushion, watching the action. What little there was with Meta Knight in the series until the later episodes, that is. The fabric gave easily underneath his razor sharp claws, breaking as easily as Meta Knight's skin had. 

He got an idea.

He spawned another Meta Knight, armor and all, and placed his hand on it, digging deeply into him with his nails. It punctured easily through the mask, practically impaling him. The monster clone did not scream. It didn't flinch. 

"Meta Knight wouldn't stand there and take it. He wouldn't have even let me get close." eNeMeE scowled. "You need to fight me, do something."

He felt the clone slap at his hand, weakly. The wizard growled deep and throaty, his expression narrowing. He clenched his hand around the monster entirely, killing it. He tried again, but even the next Meta Knight after that was equally as obedient and willing to just be crushed and scratched. Perhaps that's just a problem that comes with making all monsters, by default, obey him.

"Do something. Anything. You need to do something significant." He'd said flatly. But still, all it did was pathetically slap at him, then die.

This wasn't working. This idea sucked. So, he stopped. He watched his show, scratching at his extravagant, expensive tv-watching couch. Watching the real deal play out his monologues on the screen, be mysterious, do all these other things.. It made something inside of him pound, like a rotten heart trying to jump back to life from the adrenaline in his magic veins. All that mysteriousness and talk of hope just to die. It was sweet, it was ironic.

But it wasn't enough.

"There should've been more. I should've let him have one last monologue before we fought. That would've been good. Why didn't he do that? Was it the torture? Was he just too focused on me for once? Well, that's good, but it ruins the whole drama of the thing. Ugh. He should've just done it one last time. He should've just done more monologuing, period. That would've let people know what sort of person he was and why him dying is so important to the whole story of us two. Me and him. Why I hate him so much, why I even bothered with him. It would've made a world of difference."

eNeMeE dwelled on it, thinking more as he thought of the early directorial stance he took. He didn't want people to focus too much on Meta Knight in the story of the show, just in case he started shouting propaganda. Which he did. Sometimes. He should've gone with his gut and just made the show all about Meta Knight. 

"He's the most interesting one out of anyone else on that hill-billy planet. He had a backstory, he had a whole traumatization thing going on. Ugh, why didn't I? Well, I have all the Meta Knight footage, I could just order a supercut of that. I should just do that. I'll do that. But it would've been a lot better if the whole thing was just about him and the war and me. And me.. Maybe.."

eNeMeE scratched at the couch, watching Meta Knight fight.

* * *

"Sir, what are you doing??" 

CS had only just heard that eNeMeE had finally escaped from his tv-watching slump, and was walking through his base unattended. All the way, he was rude to staff, throwing people out of the way, until he eventually got down into the robotics department. Now, in Haltmann's office was one large, looming wizard and one rather frightened purple egg.

"Just in time, catboy." eNeMeE smiled. "This guy says that you've said that you don't want any more experiments with that thing that opens portals."

"Star Dream?" CS asked.

"Whatever it's called. I want to use it. I have an idea, you're going to love it. And if you don't, I don't care. It's going to happen regardless of what you think, and it's going to be great."

eNeMeE had thought it over in his head so many times. Oh, it was brilliant. He'd heard of it once or twice. Or maybe just once. He didn't really remember, but he had a concept in his head, and it was a great one. It was just waiting, waiting for him. eNeMeE stopped looming over Haltmann as he straightened himself up to explain his very sane, very normal, very evil plan.

"You know how that machine can make portals to other dimensions." He started.

"Yes, I do." CS replied.

"I'm going to open up a portal. Get it open. Get Meta Knight out of it. We have a whole new show. New season. New monsters. New plot line. It'll be great. We can call it an alternate history version, or something. It'll be like a sequel, but not really. Like I said, new universe. Sort of, not really. You get what I mean. That makes sense, and it's a great idea, and we're going to do it."

"Why though?"

"Because I said so, so we're going to go do it and I want it done now. And I don't want to hear any more whining out of you," eNeMeE pressed the tip of his claw against CS's nose, "because all you do is whine and complain about my great ideas."

eNeMeE swung back around just in time to see Haltmann trying to escape the situation by sinking into his cushioned seat.

"And you. You get Star Dream fired up right now. Go do it." The wizard ordered.

Haltmann nodded hurriedly before taking his gifted leave. CS watched the purple egg in pity, knowing it was either relive some trauma for him, or get some new trauma from their ruling wizard. CS sighed, grabbing hold of his boss's cape, and tugging on it to get the demon's attention.

"Whaddya want." He asked.

"I need to go tell some of our television guys about what you want to do. Are you sure this isn't able to wait a few days, or at least a few hours, sir?"

"Absolutely sure. You know what they say about progress?"

"That you can't rush it." CS replied flatly.

"Yes. They, being mortals, say that. But I'm a demon and also the ruler of the universe, so I get to rush progress. So we're doing it right here and right now, and if you have a problem with that you're just going to have to go cry."

"I am not going to go cry over you rushing me, sir."

"I'd hope not, I'm not going to pay you extra if you cry. Cry in your off-time."

eNeMeE whisked over CS, uncaring as the fabric of his pooling cape passed over the man and rustled his bangs. CS smoothed himself out by producing a comb from seemingly nowhere, then left the office himself to go get things sorted. 

eNeMeE, meanwhile, waited in the Star Dream room. He'd looked on indifferently and impatiently as technicians panicked and ran around him and chattered away like frantic little sparrows looking for their fabled breadcrumbs. It took them long enough to get the computer all situated.

"ONLINE." 

It'd finally spoke after so long. eNeMeE darkly chuckled to himself, thinking of all the evil deeds he could fulfill with countless alternate dimension Meta Knights to pick from.

"Open a portal and give me Meta Knight. An alive one." He ordered.

All the bulbs on the computer's wings pulsed like a heart beat before stopping. He could hear the gawking and awing from the supervisors, all hidden behind blast shields and safety precautions.

"UNDERSTOOD. EXECUTING SPACE-TIME TRANSPORT. EXTRA DIMENSIONAL ROAD."

A thunderous rip, a scream of dimensions tearing themself asunder sounded throughout the facility. Wind pulsed from the screams as a small portal tore through the fabric of reality in mid-air. Then, soon, it was done as quickly as it had started, and a star-shaped portal was left in the screaming's wake.

eNeMeE reached through, grabbed hold of something, and yanked it out.

It was Meta Knight.

He was discolored. But it was him. He looked emptily at eNeMeE before thrashing and bashing around in the wizard's hand. He sliced a the wizard with his sword, kicked with his feet, all while he laughed at the unfortunate little man's misfortune.

"Struggle all you want, rotten thing, but you're not getting away from me. Not even death can keep you away from me. Oh, I'll just get to kill you over, and over, and over again for all of eternity! I couldn't ask for anything better. Well, maybe I could.. Like torturing you for the rest of eternity!"

eNeMeE barelled into awful, whistling and intense evil guffawing at his horrible plans. However..

"Who are you!? Unhand me this instant!" The knight demanded.

"Who am I?" eNeMeE asked back. "Don't you know who I am?"

"No! State your name, fiend! And let me go!"

"You don't know who I am?" eNeMeE asked.

"No!"

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why!? I've never seen you before, let go of me!"

eNeMeE looked down at the knight in his hand, squeezing harshly as he felt the metal of the mask dent in his hand. He heard the other scream in a voice that wasn't even accented the same way the real one's was. He let the mush of the other's body, once it was finely crushed enough, seep out from his fist and plop onto the ground into a viscous goo.

"That wasn't Meta Knight," eNeMeE said, "he wouldn't die that easily. He wouldn't sound like that, he would recognize me. He knows who I am, that's part of what makes our fighting so special. He needs to deeply hate me."

eNeMeE opened his hand, letting the rest of the false knight fall down after he flicked his palm clean of the viscera. The sword, the mask, they clanged down uselessly.

"Give me another one, computer, and make it right this time."


	2. Chapter 2

After what only could be called a miserable failure, eNeMeE had not produced a new Meta Knight to torment. He wasn't getting a chance to try it again for a while either, after he'd scrapped the entire contraption out of— perhaps excessive and undue— violent frustration. And yes, maybe he shouldn't have killed some people on his way out, and yes, maybe he shouldn't have punched a hole in the wall of his room or melodramatically thrown himself onto his bed, yelling into his pillow like an enraged toddler, but hindsight's twenty-twenty, and no one's going to tell him to _not_ do those things.

In the wake of his frustration, he ignored a lot of CS's pleas to 'stop electrocuting everything' as his rage manifested through plasma balls around his hands, zapping into the walls and floors. It was strong enough to shut off all the lights in his room, and telling by the 'thoom' of power echoing throughout the facility (which was so loud that he could hear it through the soundproofing of his bedroom), was strong enough to shut off electricity to at least this particular district of deep management.

The power came back on after about half an hour, which the wizard had been more consolable by. However, the outburst had told anyone and everyone with more than a single braincell to stay well away from him until he'd decided he wanted to be properly sociable.

It took a long while and one angry nap later, but he eventually stalked into CS's little control room, still looking a bit prickly at the edges with his purposefully snaggle-toothed frown.

"I'm glad you've decided to rejoin normal civilization, sir." CS said. "Did you get everything you needed out of that excursion with Star Dream?"

"I got nothing that I wanted other than bootleg copies who didn't know who I was, or fakes that acted weird at me, or thought I was their _dad_ , or thought I was just some guy who comes out of fountains and harasses people. None of them had anything in common with the real one."

"And because of this," CS twiddled a pen around in his thumb, "you decided the best course of action was to punch the entire top half off of Star Dream and murder twenty staff?"

"I'm quirky." eNeMeE stated, blankly. CS stared at him expectantly until he continued. "I do things beyond mortal comprehension. That's my quirk. Y'know. Murdering people for fun. It's to relieve stress, and maybe if you did it every once in a while, you wouldn't be so stuck up. And I don't mean doing it with sending monsters places or setting up private militias or whatever else you do, I mean actual, real murder. You're skimping out, you really are."

"This conversation's not about the things that we both agree I am in no way responsible for or legally tied to," CS kept playing with the pen, spinning it around his digits, "it's about how you destroyed a valuable artifact that we have to pour millions of more dollars into. And seeing as how you made the damages, I'm going to be subtracting it from your money pool."

"Whatever." eNeMeE scoffed. "It's just a dumb pool filled with gold coins and trinkets. I don't care."

CS raised his nonexistant eyebrows slightly at the remark, staring at his boss's face. Sure enough, the top of his lip twitched, as though he were about to raise it to show his canines and gums.

"In the uh, meantime, sir," CS receded into his chair slightly, "I've arranged for you to go visit planet Hawahoo. Full spa treatment while you're there."

"I can just get that here anytime I want." 

"But you can't get the fresh air and new people fawning over how evil you are while you're here. It'll be a nice vacation, especially now that, well, everyone significantly out to get you's bit the dust." 

eNeMeE thought of the life he was bound to lead now. He hadn't thought about it very much, actually. To live without the GSA or any known Star Warriors hounding him was.. Odd. It was like a mortal being strapped with rocks by their feet, then finally getting to remove them. The freedom was there, but it felt vile in some sort of way. Not in the good, evil, murder way. Like the genuinely unfun, not cool way.

"Well, I guess it does give me a chance to kill off some random people who want to punch me.." eNeMeE tapped his chin. 

"Please try not to, sir." 

"I can't promise anything. It's only out of self defense. You know, punch a person, you get punched back. Also, did you not just hear about how I just said how murder is fun?"

"I heard you loud and clear. But please do not murder anyone while you're there."

"Self defense, I can murder whoever I want." eNeMeE'd begun to smile again.

"There's not going to be anyone there who's going to attack you."

"Well, I'll make sure there is, then. Nothing a little antagonizing won't do, of course."

* * *

The amenities were nice, of course. As expected. eNeMeE didn't care much for them, because when you always had the best treatment, everything really just blended together in terms of quality. What he did notice, however, was whenever he decided to grow up to a mountain-size to cover up the entire local beach, was that people weren't too happy, and he didn't care too much.

But he could only take so much yelling directly at his horn before he took off the sunglasses he'd had ontop of his other sunglasses, set them aside, and with one hand, made a fist, and slammed it into the quickly fleeing crowd of people, leaving a tiny spot of mashed aliens in its wake. Then he'd sigh, put on his glasses again, put up his little tanning screen, and relax in the sun's rays.

"People are just too stupid. Who goes and yells at the universe's emperor?" He sighed. 

Given his current height and relative gargantuan size (despite the fact that most of that height was taken up by his cape), his voice, though he'd talked as though he were indoors, was so loud that it'd exploded all of the windows within the nearby multiple kilometre radius. It was quite the display for those who were without ears, because otherwise they'd be focused on their burst eardrums instead.

"Meta Knight would never treat me like this. Meta Knight came at me with a whole fleet and shot at my face with an ancient relic cannon capable of tearing planets in half on a ship that had his face on it. He had respect for me, he knew you don't just walk at me and tell me to leave, tell me what to do or yell at me. People just don't respect authority nowadays."

eNeMeE just couldn't help but dwell on it all, now that it was all over. Just how cool it was, and how bitter he was now that he couldn't reclaim it. There was still more to do, he figured. He wanted more to do, more to fight, but nothing could quite hold a candle to what he'd experienced. He didn't doubt that nothing would ever be able to come so close ever again.

The thought of being denied something made him scowl. Denied something he deserved, too. The thrill of the hunt, the rush of murder, the sheerness of being fought.. He deserved such exhilarating and whimsical things, and to be denied them, oh to be denied them was such a horrible, gut-wrenching turmoil! How was he to live without crushing the strong and the weak alike?

With the weak, all it took was one punch or one utterance of a word and they cowered or exploded. With Meta Knight, it was different.

"People all think they're something they're not. Nothing can compare, really. I can just topple buildings by looking at them funny and they get all shy and just fall in on themselves. I can do whatever I want, really, and now no one can stop me, which is great. Yeah, it's fun, fantastic. Yeah.. Just great and fine. I'm the most powerful guy in the universe, as always."

eNeMeE put his hands under his head, cushioning them against the town he was laid down on.

"I just need to relish in it a little bit, I'll get used to it. Murdering, slaughtering, exploding planets with no resistance at all. That'll be great fun. No Meta Knight and his little friends to stop me. No more problems for me, at all. No more heroes, only evil is around now. Yeah. Great time to be a wizard."

eNeMeE thought for a moment.

"Man, this is boring. I'm outta here."

With a moments notice, he whisked himself away from Planet Hawahoo (despite his reservation there extending at least two more weeks) and back to his home. After all, what better place to destroy things with than his fortress built for battle?

* * *

eNeMeE sighed. CS didn't react. eNeMeE sighed louder, then he groaned, then he groaned extremely loudly, up until CS snapped to attention, a forced smile on his face, with a fluttery and light attitude.

"Is something wrong, boss?" He asked.

"When do I get to see a planet get blown up? The one with that's got those repugnant, cute little animal creatures with the big eyes who only speak in squeaks on it? I want it gone, you probably do too, so when's that going on, huh? It's been _two weeks_ now and I'm still not seeing any results on getting our already built into the base giant laser cannon actually running. Like, how much fuel does it need?"

"Well, sir, since you don't want to pay with it from your bank account, and I don't want to pay for it from mine, I've made the effort to take it from our lower paid employees in the form of a one dollar pay deduction. With the trillions of people onboard, we get plenty of money to buy fuel, but it is a big cannon, that needs a lot of fuel. Not to mention how large the planet is. It's bigger than our fortress."

"Sounds like excuses," eNeMeE put his hand under his chin as he'd lounged, "why don't you just get it done and get it done now? Where's Gerath when you need it?"

"Gerath is taking time off with all the vacation days it racked up. You'll have it done. But in the meantime, I've set us up to go to our monthly evil warlord meetup dinners." 

CS's smile seemed slightly less forced now, as he thought about all the networking opportunities he could open up once more. Always good to have friends in high places, even though he really already knew the best warlord in the 'industry'. 

eNeMeE groaned again.

"You'll have plenty of fun talking to them about how you killed your little orb enemy," CS assured, "and we're going to be going regardless. We don't want to start any significant war if we destroy someone's planet. They're bad for the galactic stock market, usually."

"I sell monsters and weapons, it'd be good for business." eNeMeE replied.

"Sir, you sell literally everything. You focus on the monsters and weapons, but NME sells quite literally anything that anyone could ever need, because we're the universal monopoly on _all_ items to ever exist."

"Whatever."

"The dinner is tomorrow, and please, sir, no murdering while we're there. While the attendees may be mortal, like me, they're still important to keep alive and not start problems with."

"You're funny if you think any stupid little mortal is going to scare me," eNeMeE scoffed, "no matter how important they think they are. I'll kill whoever I please, little catboy, and you- and no one can stop me. Especially not you, especially not them, and especially no goody two shoes. I can kill anyone, anytime, any place, and that's just something you'll have to get used to."

"Mhm," CS hummed, monotone, "I expect no murdering at the dinner."

"I do what I want."

"Sir." CS stared at eNeMeE with a stern expression. The wizard stared, back, unfaltering.

"I do what I want, and you can't stop me." He repeated. "If they say something even the slightest bit wrong to me, they die. You call ahead and you tell the venue to put their janitors on double shifts, because it's going to be a festival. A gore festival."

* * *

The long hall of various creatures, all shapes and sizes, listened to the demon wizard with forced intent. CS could tell they had no choice but to put their ears and minds directly onto whatever eNeMeE was saying. eNeMeE knew he would have the floor so long as he just kept talking, and oh boy, did he just talk. Some distracted themselves with the food while he went on and on about 'kids these days' and how 'civilians just don't know what's right for them' and how things just 'aren't like how they were back in the glory days'. 

He was very animated about it, hand gestures, emotion, putting a whole bunch of dramatics into his performance so he knew that his audience wouldn't have the possibility to grow bored whilst he talked. Some he'd actually genuinely captivated, those who stared at him with a slight hint of endearment for the way he'd put his words and the spectacle of everything he did. Others, like CS, had the chance to look places other than the wizard, so he took full advantage of that and kept intense eye contact with his drink. 

A Waddle Dee warlord across the table was not one of those people, and was actually slightly agitated when he spoke, "What do you mean by the glory days being gone?" 

"You know what I mean. People don't have any respect, and when they have no respect, there's no challenge. In my glory days, I had a war. I was respected enough to have an entire army made up of everyone who was dedicated to killing me."

CS quietly sighed as eNeMeE was essentially invited to talk about the war. Of all the things eNeMeE talked about, CS was never really much a fan of the war talk. It was senseless violence made by a man who was out of his mind, with the purpose of destroying things just for destroying. It was completely directionless up until the end. If it were for some commodity, that'd be a far different story, but the only 'valuable' eNeMeE found worthwhile was corpses.

"The GSA, the Star Warriors," eNeMeE continued, "they had so much respect for me. They treated me like I was a evil _god_. A real demon, the best at what I was doing, worth fearing, worth, you know, fighting. But now there's none of that. Do you know how many people walk up to me like I'm a mortal now? They think they can boss me around, or get me to do things just by talking to me! There was none of that with the GSA, the Star Warriors. There's no respect for me nowadays and you'd think that it'd be the opposite. I killed Meta Knight on television, I killed the last Star Warriors worth any TV-time! I killed the only guy who slipped through my claws during the war, you'd think people would respect me more and treat me more like a demon, more like an evil super villain than they actually do! There's just no respect nowadays, I need to teach people respect. So-"

eNeMeE suddenly perked up, like he had an idea. He'd stopped, then he chuckled.

"What?" The Waddle Dee asked.

"I just got the _greatest_ idea. Okay, listen, you're going to love this." 

eNeMeE got up from his chair (which he wasn't even really sitting in, he was just kinda floating like he was sitting) and teleported to the end of the dining table, scaring a few butlers from his sudden appearance. They scuttled off and away from him, much to his passing amusement. CS watched in paralyzed, forced-smiling horror as the wizard spawned a raffle drum, balls already inside, onto a foldable table he'd also spawned.

"We're going to have a raffle," eNeMeE grinned from ear to ear as he'd pat the drum lightly, "and everyone's going to participate. You see, listen. I'm the biggest guy in the universe, I do anything I want whenever I want, but you know what I haven't done? Haven't done in a while, anyways?"

eNeMeE listened to that now anxious silence, and looked directly at CS.

"I haven't destroyed a planet in quite a while."

eNeMeE felt the split second of anxiousness turn to fear. He watched as faces turned sour, and even those whose smiles were genuine had twisted into snarling scowls or terrified open-mouth frowns. These were warlords that had multiple planets under their dominion, but they were all chump-change in comparison to the utter domination of the wizard. His propaganda and PR even seeped into their governments, despite some making their hardest attempts to keep well away from him.

"So here's what we're going to do. I've got a look at all your faces, so inside this metal thing is some balls. And when I roll it, and pull one out, whoever the lucky winner is gets their planet destroyed. Their home planet. Not their other planets, you can keep those ones. After all, I'm sure you worked so _very_ super hard on getting those planets." 

Outrage spilled from the mouths of some of the attendants. They slung outcries against this, of how eNeMeE couldn't do this, of how much of a mistake he was making, pissing them all off at once like that with such a childish game.

"SHUT IT!" 

eNeMeE had roared, slamming his fist into the table infront of him. Such force, though so little energy was spent on it, was enough to crack the entire thing with one, long vertical splinter down the middle. Some warlords jumped. CS did too.

"Anyone who wants to leave, or argue, or say they think they know what's best for me? You wanna raise your hands, you wanna shout at me? Did none of you listen to me? Are you that stupid? Do you know who you're daring to be angry at?!"

eNeMeE had half the mind to just make true on his promise to CS here and now, he'd grown so heated.

"I'll have a war with all of you if I want! You are nothing to me! I don't care who you are, what your 'power' means, you-" eNeMeE cackled to himself, diluting his pissed off monologue with a chuckle none could really tell the meaning of, "you're all so insignificant! If the entire universe can't kill me, if the Star Warriors, if META KNIGHT can't kill me, what makes you think you can!? Do you think you're better than him!?"

The mute horror of his audience was nothing but a harsh scrape against his psyche, like he was being told something inaudible. He looked back at CS again, who was clearly sweating bullets— metaphorically, of course since he didn't have the real physical ability to. eNeMeE huffed, put his hand to his wizardy face and pulled down on it until he'd slid his hand off his chin.

"I hate these stupid dinners. The most value you guys bring me is the fact that you'd be fun to kill, because maybe you'd have some sort of plan activated against me when you die. But lets be real, there's not much substance here. None of you would be anything I couldn't handle, or haven't handled before. So, show of hands, who wants to go to war with me?"

Not a single hand was raised. CS seemed to be relieved, and eNeMeE smiled from the cowardice.

"Well that's a shame."

eNeMeE slammed his hand into the raffle drum behind him, busting through the metal and consequently having balls pour onto the floor like a flow of water, empty plastic 'tink'ing as they spilled. The one he'd pulled from the pool was a small purple ball, with three letters written on it.

"Because it seems like you're _all_ going to. I can't wait to see what champions you send at me."

* * *

"This isn't fair." 

eNeMeE bemoaned, draped over his couch. Not much had actually changed for NME in deeper management, everything was nice and fortified down here, but who knows how long it'd stay that way.

"It's also not fair that I now actually have to spend our military budget, sir, but this is your fault. And for your own saftey, you are not going to be going outside and murdering people."

CS was busying himself with the slew of paperwork he had to do now that eNeMeE'd pissed off literally everyone worth pissing off in the entire galaxy. 

"But it's boring. I should be out there, crushing heads, shaking babies, and burning down villages! The best way to get a real person who respects you is to leave the children alive when you burn down a village, so they grow up spending their entire life trying to get revenge on you. Y'know, I don't really remember the specifics of what I did to Meta Knight to get him to hate me so much. I know I killed everyone he held dear, but what about his home planet, did I even touch that? I don't think so. Maybe it was just the friend murdering that made him hate me so much. Or maybe he was just born with a strong sense of justice. Is that possible, do you know?"

"It depends on the way they're brought up in the world, sir. When a child is brought up in a world with out propaganda, it fosters a good image for you. That's why there aren't as many people who want to destroy you, or want any justice." CS scoffed. "They usually don't think there's any need. But now that you're ordering our mutual meteor friend around, flinging it at any and all planets you want, I, of course, have to deal with doubling down on propaganda. Do you even know what you're jeopardizing for yourself?"

"You're not seeing the bigger picture, cat man. Imagine how much more I can get out of these little baby wars. Imagine how many people will want to kill me. Isn't that exciting?"

CS's scribbling on his papers did not slow down, up until he thought of something to say next. He'd stopped, for a moment, while he spoke, "Why do you want to die so badly, sir?"

"I don't want to die," eNeMeE had sputtered, "no one can kill me. I want people to fight me. Meta Knight fought me, you know that. He fought me, and we had fun fighting. Fighting is fun, killing is fun too, but there's no real fun in killing or fighting if the other person doesn't fight back. And to get people who fight back, I need to make them hate me, make them want to, you know, kill me. They won't, obviously, but putting the idea that they can if they just, I don't know, believe in the magic of friendship. It's just fun."

"You want people to try and kill you because you think it's fun."

"I want people to fight me and actually _try_ because it's fun to watch them squirm until the end of their life."

CS pinched the bridge of his nose. Then, he clasped his hands together, and laughed quietly to himself.

"You know what, sir?" CS smiled. "You go kill all the people you want. Go ahead. You go to those war planets we've got set up, you go fight those soldiers, then come back and tell me about it, huh."

CS didn't have to say it twice. eNeMeE was already gone.

* * *

When he'd arrived on the field, a cacophony of gasps signaled it. Soldiers and monsters alike, surprised by the tyrant's sudden appearance, stared at him in pale-faced awe. He was a towering, mighty figure, enough to cast shadow over the entire battle, to block out the sun.

"Now this brings back memories," eNeMeE smiled, "my little evil creatures ripping apart some shmucks I don't care about. But you know what it was missing? Me. So here's what we're going to do."

eNeMeE spread open his cape with both of his hands, either side flaring out dramatically from his big reveal. With a slight movement of his hand, all the little monsters disappeared into puffs of purple smoke. 

"There's one thing I missed out on with my big war, and that was doing things myself."

The stars contained within his cape sparkled brightly, their light flaring in one's eyes uncomfortably as they drew closer, yet closer to the fabric until they were close enough to close the gap between captivity and freedom. They flung their sharp forms through the air and onto the field, and upon the slightest impact, they'd combusted with a grand show.

There was no small amount either, it was like a swarm of kamikaze bees. The soldiers ran, some few had screamed as they tried to find cover in trenches or behind rocks. Some shot against the stars, blowing them up in mid-air, while others were not so lucky.

All eNeMeE had to do was laugh and wait, watching as his barrage continued onward, slaughtering everything and destroying everyone within a matter of minutes. He was just that strong, that powerful, and that unstoppable. Nothing could ever truly stand up to something like that.

He eventually closed up his cape after a significant lack of anything happening. He stared down at the battlefield, seeing the scarred remains of the earth and charred remains of his opponents. Pah, 'opponents'. They were hardly worthy to be called that. 

"That's it?" eNeMeE asked.

No one responded, naturally, because dead people don't talk back.

"Well, that was disappointing. Hmm, well, it's just getting started, so.."

In a moment, he'd vanished, and then reappeared within the home of the warlord he'd decided he wanted dead. Right in their nice little living room, where their spouse and child was. They'd both startled and the spouse had begun to scream. eNeMeE simply laughed.

With a simple claw to their entire body, the spouse was gone, and the child had suddenly realized what situation they were in.

"This is what we call a traumatic moment, kiddo." The wizard leaned over them. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got another one of your parents to murder. Maybe they'll put up a fight."

eNeMeE snatched the child in his now dirty hand, feeling them squirm against his blade-like talons, only to cut themselves and cry out. What a pathetic sight it was, truly. Then again, it was a crying kid. What could be more pathetic than a crying, soon-to-be orphan?

eNeMeE perused the mansion, until eventually he was in the grand foyer. What a nice place, got some nice, luxurious decorations. Not that he hadn't seen places like it before, multiple hundreds of thousands of times. 

The warlord descended the stairs, charged rifle in hand. They hadn't waited for eNeMeE to speak, they just up and shot him. Multiple times, in the face. The shots electrified his head, sparks dancing on his metal 'skin', but there wasn't much other than that. 

There was a split second between that warlord being alive and being dead, as eNeMeE just simply clawed them, one-handedly, into ribbons. And that was it. Bits of meat slid down the stairs while the child in his hand gagged and sobbed. He dropped the kid onto the floor.

eNeMeE sighed.

"Maybe someone else will be more interesting, really give me something to look forward to." 

eNeMeE dusted off his hands, splattering remains of his violence all over the floor. The child beside him continued to sob.

"Yeesh, ungrateful little brat. Doesn't even thank me for giving them a life's purpose. You know, most people would kill to have a purpose like you do now, kid. Some people nowadays, ugh. Whatever. Get mad knowing that there's people out there who're going to praise me for being merciful because I didn't kill a kid."

eNeMeE exhaled out of his nose in amusement before rubbing his chin at the thought. If he just killed this child now, he'd save them a lifetime of misery. He'd really just be saving them the troubles of mental illness, that's how he saw it. But alas, a life of torture was far more evil than death, so he's going with the former.

"You won't ever be a Meta Knight, obviously, but maybe you'll be something."

eNeMeE sighed, looking at the gore. He felt so.. Solemn about it. What was it about people nowadays that they went down so quick? Why was everyone so easy to kill now? Did something change in society that they just make things easier for their grand wizard emperor on purpose? Like, c'mon. Why? He wanted a challenge, but here he was, getting nothing.

"Probably not, though. None of you stupid mortals can measure up to him. I'm outta here, you're welcome."

And with those fantastic parting words, the wizard teleported away, leaving a crying child and one warlord dead. Surely the others wouldn't go down so comedically easy, right?

* * *

Another battlefield, another day. More people to slice into ribbons, then to shake their meat off his claws. Or perhaps, if he were feeling a bit more merciful, he'd bust out the lasers, electricity, and monsters who melted flesh off bones. 

Either way, he was participating in the destruction, and watching people scream in terror. It was amazing, as always, to see people scream and run. Some went into shock and just stood as jaws of monsters crunched them, while others attempted to take up battle to no avail. Most them ran, though, and he'd chased.

It was like that on every single planet he was on, every single battlefield. His monologues were running dry for inspiration. He could only call a army a coward so many times before it didn't even sound like an actual word anymore. 

That same part of him raged from before, back when he was on Hawahoo. Watching these battle-hardened vets who'd probably killed a few, run in terror from him, it was nice, but it wasn't. He'd felt like he'd gotten a taste of something he truly desired after so long without it. A spark of motivation in a room filled with especially flammable emotions. Was it hatred? Was that the right word to describe the feeling he wanted? He couldn't really tell. It probably was.

When knocking down warlord after warlord, army after army, he'd steadily grown more twitchy, more frustrated with the way things kept at him. It agitated him beyond belief, despite the fact that there was nothing truly there to make him actually, genuinely mad. And he'd recognized it, too! It was the exact same situation as last time, people running, destruction, death, he was supposed to be enjoying himself, but while that was all happening, he was scowling. He'd shivered and paced around, growling at nothing when he had no more dramatic monologues to spew. 

Thrusting himself into danger, into violence during sieges against castles, or kingdoms, or cities made for battle, he'd found himself more often than not, getting closer and closer to the people he'd fought. The warlords he'd decided to get personal with, up in their space to harass them or impale them on his fingers before they died.

"Can't we work something out?" One had asked, holed up at the back of the room.

eNeMeE stalked in, as one would expect, covered in viscera related juices and general other unpleasant meat-related things. It was less about the hygiene of things and more about the rush of getting it done in the first place. 

"You, no.. No, no one's given me anything. There's nothing here, there's nothing anywhere. You had your chance, everyone's had their chances." 

As eNeMeE moved closer, the warlord blasted some pretty impressive spells directly at the wizard's face. He simply just pushed through them, uncaring, unflinching, and unscratched. He'd grabbed the alien, slamming their floating body into the wall and keeping it painfully, crushingly against it.

"Meta Knight wouldn't be boring like this. Meta Knight was one man, and he challenged me for eons. You- all your friends, had an army. He had nothing. I destroyed the army he was part of, and he was still something. You tried, you gave me some hollow victories. Meta Knight was worth something! I don't even care about who or what you are, I- Meta Knight, he was something!"

"W-Why is this- is this all- the wars, everything, is it all about Meta Knight? I didn't even know him, I n-"

"You think you're better than him, do you?" eNeMeE barked. "I tortured him and he still fought me! I _tortured_ him! Do you know how much it takes to come back from being tortured? No, you don't. But. But, but but. I'll let you learn."

* * *

"So glad to see you again boss, what'd you learn today?" CS asked with a pleasant— yet scummy— toothless smile plastered on him.

eNeMeE flumped into his 'fainting' couch, laid out and sprawling over it. His face was down, directly into the cushion. Getting all the gore off of him had taken up most of his time, and the cleaners refused to let him go until he was squeaky clean. He appreciated it, but at the same time, it was more time wasted sitting somewhere getting buffed and polished when he could be murdering and conquering.

"Is Star Dream done being fixed." 

"No, sir, it's only been a few days."

"I need to find some way, something to do. These wars aren't anything at all.." eNeMeE groaned and gripped a throwpillow. "They're nothing. They just don't matter, catboy. Meta Knight.."

eNeMeE trailed off into mumbles, so CS pulled the conversation by himself.

"Well, there is one more thing you can try other than Star Dream, sir.."

eNeMeE perked up, pulling his face out of the pillow. CS never saw such a strange look on his boss's face in his life. It was indescribable and quite frankly, unsettling and uncanny to the point where he didn't want to think much about why it was there.

"Tell me it. Now."

"There's one other Ancient-related piece of technology in the universe."


	3. Chapter 3

With a multi-trillion— probably more, no one'd counted— employee company, it was expected that eNeMeE would find those Power Stars much quicker than the average, single schmuck trying to quest through the cosmos to find them all. In fact, apparently one batch of his employees had found someone doing something exactly like that to try and wish their father good health. eNeMeE was quite pleased to hear that they'd had to tear the Power Star from that adventurer's quivering, anguishing hands. Nothing's worth getting unless there's a fight, after all.

In the meantime, eNeMeE had gussied himself up to meet once again with his most hated nemesis. Presentation was important, and he certainly couldn't have himself drenched in gore for when they met again. It just wasn't their thing. He had to be presentable, well composed, and all-in-all well groomed. He hadn't had his cape ironed or face buffed in quite some time, so the freshening up was quite pleasant.

After about two days of restlessness and anticipation, eNeMeE was invited out into the depths of space by the project's head, ready to summon the illusive wish granting comet. Nevertheless to say, anything CS had wanted him to do that day was swept under the rug (as usual) and he was onboard the next ship out to the picked summoning spot.

With not a second to waste, once they'd gotten there, eNeMeE rushed from the ship out into the depths of space, the stars in his possession.

The power stars, seemingly pleased by where they'd been brought, encircled him, then shot off into the void. The space rippled like waves, light emitted from the star's energy. It turned blinding. It'd consumed the ship and the wizard temporarily, before fading. In place of the stars and the light was the gargantuan cat-face mechanism known as Nova.

"WHAT IS YOUR WISH? ...>" It'd asked of him, solemnly.

"I'm not going to waste both of our time with greeting eachother, I know you know who I am by now."

eNeMeE reached into the unending void of his own cape, and pulled out a single object; Meta Knight, stone cold and stuffed.

"Bring Meta Knight back to life, now." eNeMeE commanded.

Nova was quiet for a moment, its eyes moving lazily as it processed what exactly the demon had asked of it. Or perhaps it was judging him. Either way, the hesitation made his mood curdle, and a sour growl seep from his throat.

"Well?" eNeMeE pushed. "Are you going to, or am I going to dismantle you?"

"VERY WELL. ...>"

eNeMeE watched down at his hands at the stiff corpse of Meta Knight, watched as he floated and was encompassed in a flickering, red light. It was like he was surrounded by dying ruby fire flies, ones that pittered out when they strayed too far from the knight they'd swarmed.

Gently, the knight was deposited back into eNeMeE's waiting hand. He saw Meta Knight's body jolt, his eyes light back up once more with a sharp white sheen fading into his normal, neutral yellow.

"There you are." eNeMeE purred, his happiness hardly contained by the stretch of his shark-toothed smile. "I'm sure you've got plenty of feelings right now, Meta Knight, but the first you should be feeling is gratefulness. Do you know how many hoops I had to go through to bring you back to life?"

Two days of sitting and doing nothing! It was agonizing! But it's not like he's going to tell Meta Knight that. The knight simply labored in the wizard's hands, completely silent. Well, naturally. Mortals couldn't talk in space.

"Now, you're going to absolutely hate what's going to happen next. I'm thinking some torture, some fighting.. Fighting before the torture, of course, the torture is the payoff for me. How about we get you some new friends I can kill? Since, y'know, all the ones before? Gone. Yeah. Got rid of them all. They're all stuffed in my-"

"Hey." A voice chimed.

eNeMeE looked over to the voice, curious. Where there wasn't before, now was a large demon, the same size as him. Its body seemingly composed entirely blue, licking flames, it had a ogre-like, bare skull and similarly boney fingers. It grasped tightly onto a large, clearly magical staff. The wizard looked to the battalion of ships that'd accompanied him, giving them a reason to start shooting if need be. eNeMeE's confusion must've been plain on his face.

"You can't be doing that." The skeletal demon gestured vaguely at Meta Knight.

"Says who?" eNeMeE asked, incredulous. "Do you know who you're talking to, boneboy? I'm the ruler of the universe, the emperor of darkness, the winner of galactic wars."

"Of course you- you don't- ugh- I'm the god of death. Necrodeus. And I say you can't be doing that."

"Well, _I've_ never heard of you." eNeMeE now shielded Meta Knight like he were some ladybug he didn't want flying away. "I've never seen you. And I'm more of a 'god' of death than you are. Do you know how many people I kill."

"Yeah. But like, you don't deal with souls or the afterlife or that sorta stuff. I do. And you just, like, took out a soul. So I'm here to, y'know, take him back. I can't be having people who're dead be alive."

"You're not taking him." eNeMeE snarled, feeling his emotions flare. "He's mine. He's not anyone else's. He's especially not yours, you don't have the history we do. I claimed him a long time ago, and I will smash your skull in if you try."

"SHOULD I..? ...>" Nova hummed, awkwardly.

"No, no, you stay." Necrodeus assured. "Look, 'eNeMeE', buddy. Pal. He's going to die anyways. All things that get resurrected get like, my virus in them, and they die."

"I'll heal it out of him. I'm the universe's best at that sort of magic. Don't call me buddy. We're not 'friends'."

"You really won't. He's just going to suffer and die."

"That's what I want."

"Okay, he's going to suffer and die, and you're not going to get a fight out of him because he's going to be stuck in bed. You want that? Because I don't. I'm taking him back."

"Out of my cold, dead hands, you freak."

Necrodeus sighed, then pointed his staff out. In seconds, a black and purple lightning bolt pierced through the space between them and shot directly towards eNeMeE's hands. It felt like nothing, as expected. eNeMeE scoffed.

"How stupid can you be? Nothing can kill me. I'm immortal and invulnerable."

"Meta Knight's not." Necrodeus responded simply.

eNeMeE stalled with shock as he opened his hands to reveal a once-more limp knight, twitching from electricity. His eyes had dulled once more, and through touch, his body had clearly become limp. eNeMeE didn't know how to feel about seeing him dead again, his thoughts swam to the point where it was quiet enough to hear crickets inside of his train of thought. His breath trembled out of his once-silent open mouth gasp.

"I'd pity you if you were a person and not some evil _creature_." Necrodeus continued. "You give me way too much work to do, sometimes."

eNeMeE snapped his head back to the fellow demon, a ferocious snarl of uncontained rage giving way to a undignified roar as he'd discarded the knight and lunged for the skeleton. Necrodeus barely had time to defend himself. There wasn't much to grab onto with the fellow demon, but eNeMeE made do as Necrodeus attempted to shove him off.

In his blind bloodlust, all he'd cared about was murder, preferably through non-magic means. It made him out to be more of a feral beast as he'd snap his jaws inches away from the other's singular eye, his hands in battle with Necrodeus's staff. He'd practically roared in Necrodeus's face as the skeleton could barely stave off the gnashing pit of teeth.

The confrontation didn't go on very long, as eNeMeE freed his hands, unhanding the staff, and delivered a nice large plasma ball of magic directly into the side of the skeleton's head repeatedly. Unfortunately, none of that seemed to work, until eNeMeE had forgone the magic and just punched the dying daylights out of him until he'd flinched. Then, one more fist to that noggin had flung the other away.

Necrodeus scrambled for his staff, but eNeMeE simply didn't allow it, grabbing and pinning the fellow demon against Nova with his hand. eNeMeE forced him down against the cold gold, his fingers stabbing through the open, dark eyesockets of Necrodeus's skull.

eNeMeE hooked his talons through the hole of the skull, slamming it repeatedly into Nova's surface, hearing it crack and creak while Necrodeus ruthlessly struggled against him, scraping him and bashing him with all of his skeletal might. But unlike this boneboy, eNeMeE was made of much, much tougher stuff. There was no contest.

The repeated bashing began to get so harsh that Nova was starting to dent under the pressure. It didn't seem to mind.

eNeMeE unhanded him, if only for a moment, to begin to make good on his promise to smash the other's skull in. He'd punched the worthless creature before him with enough force to topple a reinforced skyscraper, over, and over, and over again. Cracks splintered the skull until it shattered, but that wasn't enough, even.

eNeMeE kept going. He'd punched that eye inside the skull into a fine paste, he pounded the fractured bits into dust, unable to see anything other than red, hot fury. Yet, despite a skull, the foul worm's body still wriggled and fought him.

He did the same to its hands, watching as the cartilage crumbled beneath his knuckles. He watched as a singular eyeball attempted to flee from the wreckage of the creature's skull, only to be squashed like a grape in his closed palm. The only thing he'd regretted, as the purple-blue and black flames died out, was that he hadn't savored it more.

eNeMeE trembled after it was done, huffing and wheezing, still looking for something to do. Something to tear apart, something to blame for what'd happened. He'd gripped the sides of his head for a moment, trying to stop fanning his anger's flame as his mind screamed for more violence, for the death of all those who'd opposed him. But there were none left, and all he could do is sit amongst the debris with the people who'd watched him devolve into a wild animal.

Nova looked away. Then it left.

The ships that brought him here probably wished they could easily do the same, because they were straight in his line of fire now.

* * *

eNeMeE hovered through his museum. Well, no, that wasn't really true. He'd only hovered when he got there, and he'd moved with purpose. He'd positioned himself infront of one particular 'statue'.

After the fight with Necrodeus, the skin had gotten damaged. The mask had gotten another scratch. There was more burns from the electricity. It was wrong. It wasn't his work, there was damage.

"Sir." CS said simply. "He's dead."

"I _know_ that," eNeMeE barked nastily, defensive as though he'd been talked down to, "I'm glad he's dead."

"Healing magic doesn't work on dead people." CS continued.

eNeMeE put his hand down. The red magic faded from his palm, and retreated back into his cloak.

"He was killed by someone else."

A trembled breath following after that made CS's skin crawl. He was of course concerned, moreso now after how eNeMeE had to take multiple hours and _thousands_ of Destroya pilots worth of 'collateral damage' to return to a non-violent state post-Nova visit.

"He was killed by someone who wasn't me. I brought him back and someone else killed him. Someone else _damaged_ him. Now look at this. Look at it." eNeMeE held his hand ontop of the 'brand' that Necrodeus had left on the mask. "That worthless creature left its mark on my kill. I _can't_ have it. I _won't_ have it. I should've tortured it before I killed it."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty, sir," CS kept his voice as level as possible, "but I assume you want me to get another mission to-"

"Yes. _Now_. I won't have him like this. He's _mine_."

* * *

"You." eNeMeE's fangs were grit.

Necrodeus had appeared before the wizard even had a chance to put in his wish to Nova. This time, he appeared to be much more stern and nonplussed with his fellow demon. Nova looked away, just like it did before.

"Yeah. Me. You can kill me as much as you like, y'know, but I come back. Death doesn't mean anything to like, you know, guy who helps with the stuff in the afterlife. So we're going to do this song and dance. Again. But we're only going to do it this one time. No more."

Necrodeus extended his staff out, ball pointed at Nightmare. The wizard scoffed. He'd opened his mouth to say something before said staff was redirected to Nova. A beam of lightning shot, collided, and sparked all over the machination. It yowled in cosmic, ear-splitting pain that shook the cosmos and ripped the fabric of space and time. It poured out all its energy into a loud end in the vacuum of space.

The explosion was like a supernova, blasting and destroying the ships that'd brought Nightmare over. When the light cleared, nothing remained of the star nor the technology. Nothing but the two demons.

Nightmare'd studied his surroundings silently, that same indescribable feeling crossing through his head. He couldn't comprehend what was happening, he'd almost thought that he'd just been teleported into an entirely new area of space. There we no landmarks. Not anymore. Nothing remained but him and Necrodeus. And he'd stared in silent open-mouth shock. 

"It's been a thorn in my side for long enough anyways," Necrodeus said plainly, "and if you're going to abuse it, no point for it to be around."

That same feeling. The one from before. The same rage, the same shock, the same insurmountable, unstoppable bloodlust re-surfaced. He'd had something taken from him. Who was this to take something from him. This was nothing. No one was anything. No one was anything to him!

"YOU. **YOU**!" eNeMeE yelled.

That feral, inconsolable malice, that lurching form, that plasma-like lick of electricity covering his body to show him to be more of a effigy of a sun than an actual living being, all of it a testament to a pleasant (in his opinion) truth.

Meta Knight was something.

Meta Knight the _only_ thing. Outside of him, nothing existed. No challenge, no obstacle eNeMeE couldn't run down.

Under his claws, Necrodeus broke and screeched in shallow pain. Necrodeus was no obstacle, not really. It was a temporary thing that'd only served its hollow purpose for these few fleeting moments. It could not escape him, it could not kill him, and it would _not_ humiliate him.

He felt like he'd blacked out. Time flashed by him. One moment he was beating, tearing and ripping, magically outclassing and overkilling, and the next moment he was alone. The feeling of something else had snapped him out of his murderous delirium. Not a flame nor piece of skull accompanied the demon in the void now.

Just him. The darkness.

There was nothing here anymore.

* * *

He had to be practically yanked off the necromancer, but it wasn't before eNeMeE had done some serious damage. He'd thrashed quickly out of the hands of the nearby security guards, growing in size to avoid another bout of restraint. He'd smashed the mage's head into a table, repeatedly, hearing their shouts and yells of agony while the rest of the room screamed in fear and alarm.

It was fruitless to keep him from any violence he'd set his mind on. People should've just known that by now. Disappointment, refusal, inability, all of it was worthy of death in this regard. He could not, would not take no for an answer in any regard. Those who tried to stop him were equally worthy of punishment.

"Stars, sir, ugh.." CS had groaned when seeing the results of the wizard's most recent 'accident'. The ritual room was covered nearly from wall to wall in explicit proof of today's 'mistake'. The salesman took care to step around any gore or mush left over to approach his boss.

eNeMeE felt like a crumpled piece of paper. If that was an emotion, that's how he felt and looked. CS hadn't ever seen him more miserable in the years he'd worked in comparison to how he saw him in that moment.

"It's sad that I'm getting used to this.." CS sighed, but he forced a smile the whole time anyways. "Do you want to do anything else today? Try another summoning? I got one of the _other_ best necromancers in the galaxy for you, just like you asked."

eNeMeE didn't answer for a moment, wiping his face of nonexistant sweat as he'd attempted to compose himself. His anger had died out just a few moments before his assistant had entered the room, thankfully.

"I want Meta Knight back." eNeMeE had said, almost somberly.

Not that he was regretful, no. There's no guilt or sorrow about someone he hated and wanted dead.. Being dead. It's just that he couldn't be hurt or killed anymore, now that he was dead.

"How about I schedule an appointment with a therapist, sir?" CS had proposed.

eNeMeE shot him a look as though CS had just basically asked if he could stab the wizard in the face twenty times then scream obscenities at him while squeezing lemon into his wounds.

"When is Star Dream going to be done?" eNeMeE returned, disdainful.

"We have a few more weeks," CS was thankful for the quick topic change, "so until then, all we have is necromancers. Please try to be patient and try to refrain from 'finding them dead after a freak magical explosion'."

"I don't know what happens, all of them just seem to die in that, uh, magical, explosion.. Yeah.. They all must be doing something wrong when they cast their dinky little spells."

eNeMeE looked down at his hand, wiping it of viscera and other details. He'd probably need to wash up and go get some security footage altered before anything could be said about this whole situation. CS would handle it, though.

"If they're able to do their job without an 'accidental explosion', sir, they could bring Meta Knight back. There's only so many necromancers in the universe in the first place." The catman was getting a little annoyed with all the calls he had to make thanks to this escapade of grief.

"If they were better at their jobs, those 'explosions' wouldn't happen." eNeMeE grumbled. He got himself up, dusting off what he could.

"Would you like me to-"

"Yes," eNeMeE interrupted, "full spa treatment. Ironing. Everything. If Meta Knight's going to come back, I need to look as clean as possible. Being covered from head to hem like this has its appeal, but it's not the sort of thing that's my style towards Meta Knight."

"Of course, sir."

* * *

CS had to keep his boss entertained outside of the ritual room as to make sure no accidents happened. The necromancers were predisposed to fatal mistakes when a warlord wizard was watching over their shoulder. A tragedy, really, so many lost just because of the pressure of working under the most important man in the universe. Endless disappointment lead to eNeMeE waiting outside like a family member outside of a hospital room, anxious for results from the doctors.

He was positively focused and restless. CS watched as his claws twitched and scraped against the arm of the chair he was 'sat' in. He'd stared at the door with poignant attention, waiting with bated breath for any slight movement of the automated metal.

An alien stepped out and waved the two in, and the wizard had practically flung them to floor with how quickly he'd whisked past him and straight in. There, indeed, in the middle of the ritual circle was Meta Knight, live in the flesh once more. He'd labored and gasped, but he looked completely undamaged.

"What did you do to him?!" eNeMeE snapped to the necromancer, who gasped and put their hands up defensively.

"It's part of resurrection! He's- he's sick, when people get resurrected, they're always sick!" The necromancer sputtered out quickly.

Meta Knight, armored and caped, couldn't do anything but heave and breath deeply. He'd laid on the floor, probably in a cold sweat, as eNeMeE approached. He'd grabbed his terribly hated foe within his hands, covering him from all sides in a metal grip. No one would be able to touch him there.

"That won't be a problem.." eNeMeE had smiled, his healing magic turning his palms and the undersides of his digits into a faint, glowing red. Barely any could see it, considering how he'd held the knight like a ladybug he didn't want to escape, but its aura fluttered up from the cracks in that 'shield'.

"Healing magic..?" The necromancer had wondered out loud.

"You don't get it," eNeMeE didn't look at them, "there's no fun in breaking something that's broken. Healing something broken, then breaking it again is a lot better. Infinite fun. No one dies unless I let them."

CS kept a steady and simple smile, a nice contrast to the openly disgusted necromancer. CS was just a bit more used to it, which is why he didn't flinch when the wizard laughed.

Eventually, eNeMeE opened his hands, expecting to see Meta Knight staring angrily up at him, swordless, furious, and miserable. But all he saw was a dejected lump of a man who coughed and wheezed, barely conscious.

"What?" eNeMeE asked.

He'd tried again. No matter how much he poured into his magic, Meta Knight didn't seem to get any better. It didn't make any sense. He could preform miracles, cure any disease, end sickness if he wanted— which he didn't , he needed pharmaceuticals to stay in business— yet here Meta Knight was. Coughing. Wheezing.

Dying without his permission.

"The sickness, it's.." The necromancer spoke up, and eNeMeE glanced back at them. "It's some sort of _holy_ disease, from what I know. Anyone who gets brought back to life gets it. It's supposed to be a god named Necrodeus's doing."

"That thing is hardly a god with how easy I kill it over and over." eNeMeE scoffed.

eNeMeE looked down at Meta Knight, still alive. Still breathing. There was just no fight in him. eNeMeE would find him some. All he had to do was get that skeleton to remove it. He'd torture an antidote out of him made purely out of his calcium-ridden tears if he needed to. If he could resist some tempting and easy murder, that is.

"Resurrected people usually die again in a few minutes after coming back.. But maybe with your healing magic, you can keep him around for longer." The necromancer advised, trying to look a bit hopeful.

eNeMeE moved Meta Knight to look at him in the eyes. The flickering eyes behind his mask were yellow, but slowly, they turned red. eNeMeE smiled fondly at the fighting spirit still clung to the dependent knight. It meant so much that even now, he still had enough of the mind to hate him, and to hate him respectfully.

"We're going to have a lot of fun together, Meta Knight. Mostly me, though. You don't know how much I missed torturing you. But first, I'm going to deal with someone who thinks he can keep me from you. Stupid, right? I know."

eNeMeE's little promise inspired nothing but a groan from the knight. A satisfied, evil humming purr came from the wizard as he stared at the hapless little creature. Perhaps he'd give him Galaxia back later, just so there was a little bit of spice when they were fighting. When Meta Knight was well again, of course.

"Hey, you guys talking about me?" Necrodeus asked.

Everyone (minus the wizard) in the room had gasped at the spontaneous appearance of the 'god of death'. The necromancer had tried to flee, but Necrodeus had grabbed them by the wrist.

"You know you can't be doing this stuff, guy."

Necrodeus then slapped the mage on the back of their hand, making them whimper. He'd let them go afterwards, and they'd scurried off to safety. CS decided that for his own, he'd follow suit. He also needed to figure out how and when the security staff let a whole demonic skeleton into the building.

"Alright, give me the knight, please." Necrodeus held out his hand.

"You're going to get rid of the disease on him," eNeMeE snarled, "or you're going to die."

"Oh nooooo, I'm going to die. Ooooh what a terrible thing to happen to me. I'm going to die. Aaaahhh." Necrodeus waggled his hands in the air, wiggling his fingers as he did so. "Man, the only guy who makes a big deal out of dying is you. I don't really care. It's just kinda inconveniencing and it hurts, but it's not, y'know, like.. A big deal for me. Would just prefer it didn't happen."

"Torture would be a big deal." eNeMeE flared his gums.

"Hasn't happened, won't happen."

In a flash, Necrodeus summoned his golden staff. eNeMeE tossed Meta Knight into his cape, noting he would only have a couple minutes before the blueberry expired. He had to make this a quick one.

But as thoughts spun around in his head, of the way he was challenged, eNeMeE's feverish attitude had returned, even before Meta Knight had been hurt. Remembering how he was taken before, how he'd been stopped before, it was enough to remind him of what was at stake.

As the two demons locked into battle, fists and claws scratching against bone and metal, with Necrodeus batting eNeMeE like a baseball, punching against his horns and throat, making him wince, sputter, and hesitate, it only made his fury all the hotter. It was a proper, close-quarters fight with someone who could take him.

But it wasn't Meta Knight.

So it didn't matter.

It didn't have the same feeling as the heroic orb, going on about how everything was stolen from him in war and in life, trying to finally reclaim some peace for the universe. So that way nothing could be taken from anyone ever again. It didn't have the same tone, same anger as someone who'd been robbed of innocence and forced into battle. It didn't have the same history as someone who he knew every aspect of, and he, every aspect of his enemy too.

It was a hollow fight, full of brutality just for the sake of it.

And at its end, when eNeMeE mentally labored from the burn of his own anger, when Necrodeus was again, nothing more than shards on the floor and burn marks on the wizard's nails, he'd pulled Meta Knight out of his cape to see him still and lifeless. Again.

This time, though, the skeleton was so kind as to leave his staff behind. Remarkably, unsnapped and unblemished. eNeMeE could hardly grip it properly, as it shook in his hands. The ruby orb on the top shined in the fluorescent light of the room.

eNeMeE focused on the staff, trying to will it to his whim. To bring Meta Knight back again, but all it did was spark and short out, leaving the entire arm he'd wielded it with numb. He'd dropped it to the floor, listening to it clatter as he'd stared down at his knight.

At least now he was undamaged again.

The necromancer, their assistants, and CS slowly returned to the room when they'd heard the fighting slow to a stand-still.

"Lets try again." eNeMeE said, quietly. "I want to try again this time. It'll be different. I won't let him keep taking what's mine."

* * *

This time, Necrodeus didn't show up. The disease did, but the skeleton kept his distance. The necromancers were busy researching the staff he'd left behind whilst the demon kept busy with his knight. Despite being bed-bound, despite being in obvious suffering, Meta Knight hadn't stopped his glaring.

"You're very unappreciative. I'm doing this all for you, you know. We'll go back to how it was. You, me, and me torturing you. Until the end of time, this time. It's going to be great. You're going to be trapped. Forever." eNeMeE almost drooled at the thought.

Meta Knight said nothing, only laboring underneath the flowing, healing magic. No matter how much the wizard pumped into him, still, no matter how long, nothing appeared to get any more. He could keep Meta Knight alive, like this. He was his life support. He kept the knight tethered to the awful reality of sickly suffering, being tended to by the man who'd slaughtered his race, friends, and family. It was like honey and sugar to the wizard, it was so sweet.

"You don't know how much I _missed_ you," eNeMeE sounded heavy, "it's been so boring without you. There isn't really any other creature quite like you. You're different. You get what it's all about. You understand what I want, and I can't ask for a better person to make suffer until the end of time."

Meta Knight was a pinnacle of heroism. No one else could compare. No one else had the track record, the skills, the personality, or the moral standing like he did. No one else could replace him, no one else could ever replicate him. Mortal personality was so fickle and unique.. eNeMeE was so lucky to have latched his claws into the perfect trophy. He thanked the universe for Meta Knight's phenomenally horrible fate.

"Once I get a cure for your sickness, I'm thinking cage. Shackles. The whole thing. We're going all the way. You're going to either be a pet, or I'm going to.. Okay, maybe I'd let you out. Like, let you recover. Let you get some new friends, let you have Galaxia back, all that stuff. But here's how it'd go."

eNeMeE thought for a moment. Then, he gasped and giggled.

"First off, I’d kidnap you, again. Obviously. But first I think I’d have you and me fight to the ‘death’. Death in quotation marks since you fighting me is a fools errand, you can’t even hurt me at all. You’d just be struggling and writhing against like, an eventuality. It’s gonna happen eventually, but you’re trying your hardest to not go down without a fight, so you’re fighting me. Maybe it’s so that way when you do die, you can go down with some dignity.

And plus, also, oh, we’re fighting because I’ve got a grand scheme to destroy everything you, specifically, hold dear. All the things that bring YOU, as an individual, hope. And maybe I’ve already accomplished it, maybe I haven’t, but you’re fighting me regardless because either one of those two options works. Then, eventually, I get you down. I pin you. I’m just leaning ontop of you and I’ve smashed you into the ground with my hand, closing it around you to dig into the dirt or whatever the ground is made out of, but not to completely pick you up.

I say something amazing and threatening and you hiss at me and say something back and your bashing your sword against my hand or trying to stab me but it’s not working. We talk a bit, then I eventually decide to get it on with and I electrocute you. I do it in bursts so that way you stay awake, but it still hurts so much that you’re screaming. You’re shaking in my hand, not because you’re scared, but because you’re in so much pain, and that’s also just what electricity does to muscles. Then, I let go of you, and let you get up. And I know what you’re thinking; why would you let me get up? Well.

Here’s the thing. I want to beat you up some more still, really curbstomp you. So I let you get up to make it seem like you still have a fighting chance. You take it and try to fight, but because you’re so injured, you can’t do anything. It’s a one-sided beat down, and you’re internally trying to keep yourself hopeful, but I’ve stacked the odds against you so badly that you know that I know that you know it’s hopeless.

And so, I beat you up until you can’t move, gloat a bit, then pick you up. And you’re just resentful, you’re angry. You’re not terrified yet, you’re just scornful, and you get a look on your face, and I make fun of you for it. For being mad and not scared, because you know, I really do like it when you fight back. Being courageous and all that sorta stuff is what I live for, and you fighting me despite the odds just adds onto it.

It’s great.

Anyways. I take you away, and while I’m transporting you, you’re just trying to draw hope out of yourself and think about all the people you love. And you hope, against all odds, that things are going to be fine. That oh, maybe I didn’t get to one of them, or I couldn’t get to them, depending on the scenario.

You hope they can defend themselves while I have you, and have your stupid sword. I keep insulting you and making fun of you, and you spit venom at me back, saying I’ll lose like I always have, but then I tell you that, unlike you, I just have to win once. And now you’ve lost.

So, I take you back to my base, slap you around a bit more, then throw you in a cell. No sword. I take it from you, put it somewhere you can’t get. So you’re just sitting broken, alone, in your thoughts. Of course, I visit you and gloat some more, because I can’t have my favorite orb getting lonely or forgetting where he is, can I?

And I tell you how my plans have been going, and how successful they are, and how it’s all because you’re weak, and you left your friends to die. And I tell you that once I’m done, I’ll let you see them. You just get to sit alone until then. And that’s exactly what happens. I don’t let you heal completely, I give you a zap here and there for a little fun. See you spasm, see you cry out, all that.

But even still, you’re not scared. You’re just angry. You keep up this face, this whole attitude of anger, and I’m just eating it up while I go to destroy all you hold dear in the mean time. So, I eventually do my plan, and I drag you out of your cell. I show you your broken or dead companions, and I let you go touch them and all that. You don’t want to look at them until one of them, dying, reaches out to you, and you hold their hand. The two of you talk a little. I shock them. They die.

You try to attack me, or you mope over them, and I laugh at you, then drag you off. I torture you for multiple days, weeks, months.. Who knows how long. Until I get bored. Until I break you, mentally, because Stars knows I’d be breaking you all other types of ways physically.

It’s only when you’re dead in the head that I take you outside, propose you have freedom, and you just stand there blankly, unable to comprehend what I’m giving you that I take you and hold you up as a trophy to show the rest of the universe my reach. My power. How I broke you, the man who got away from me.

How I truly have won, how I am unstoppable, and how much I’m willing to do to you, your friends, and your stupid little race of Star Warriors. You’re my prime example. I have you filmed, your humiliation on record, and the results too. And then, I just leave you to toddle around, broken.

Occasionally checking in on you on the planet I’ve got on surveillance, breaking you some more when and if I so please. You struggled all the way until the end, you stayed angry, but now you feel nothing. Truly nothing. You can’t think outside of the things I inflicted on you, for how long I tortured you, that you can’t operate outside of it.

You’re stuck.. In.. What’s the word? I don’t know the word, but you’re stuck being thoughtless. You can’t think anymore, you feel like you’re still in your cell. Waiting to be beaten or exposed to one more of my atrocities.

It’ll be a fun time for the both of us, I think.”

eNeMeE smiled, satisfied with his proposition. The horrors he'd laid out for the knight in full view, he'd focused on the other man's reaction.

"Well? Any thoughts? Want me to change something?" He'd asked, hopeful for some destructive, angry critique.

Meta Knight would've probably given some if he wasn't dead. 

"What? WHAT? **HOW**??" eNeMeE shouted, his magic shutting off as he'd grabbed tightly onto his once again dead prize.

He'd been healing the whole time he was talking, how did that happen? When did that happen? Why? WHY? That shouldn't have been possible, he was the best healer in the universe! He.. He couldn't be beaten by anything, but even while he was healing Meta Knight, he still died! Necrodeus still took him, without even being in the room. Without even being alive.

"This can't keep happening to me. Why?"

Why can't he just have what he wants? Why does the universe have to deny him at every step? It's always been like this, but he can't even have one nice thing in his life, can he? He can't even have one knight he would torture until it died of old age, he can't even have one nice thing.

He needed to do something. He needed to go all the way. Do something, anything.

"If.. I- Yeah. Yeah, if.. If Meta Knight wants to keep going to the afterlife, that's- no, I can't. I can't have that, no." eNeMeE's voice shook with a deliriously dangerous quality. "I need to make sure, I need.. All I need to do is pull him out of there **myself**."


	4. Chapter 4

They'd tried to get necromancers to figure out how to use the thing, but considering how the weakest among them were immediately evaporated upon skin-to-staff contact, it was better to cut their losses and just have the strongest creature in the universe figure it out instead.

eNeMeE hadn't stopped over the past days, powering through hours and hours of magical attempts that any mortal would consider brutal, probably even fatal. But thankfully for him, he was no mortal man, he had no mortal resolve nor mortal bones to break. The spells from Necrodeus's staff rejected his evil influence and fired back at him, and they would've easily peeled skin back from the muscle of anyone lesser. 

Black sparks of the arcane danced along his form, and magical winds whipped his body and cape rather spectacularly. As the light in the ruby jewel grew and grew, so did the wizard's determination to figure out how it worked. But alas, all it did was fire a bolts upon bolts directly into his face, slamming against him in a desperate act of defiance. It was charming, but eNeMeE'd growled from it regardless. It was beginning to leave streaks of light in his vision, like when someone looked at a bright lightbulb for too long. 

Infuriated and practically blinded by the light, he threw the staff down onto the metallic floor, half expecting the shaft to snap and the jewel to shatter and half hoping it wouldn't. It was a weapon wielded by a fellow demon, so of course it needed a bit more force to break. It was fine, much to the relief of the witnesses of eNeMeE's great magical power. A loud 'thwang' echoed throughout the room as the faux-gold staff reverberated and almost jiggled from being thrown so harshly against the floor.

There were some disappointed hums from his audience as the wizard wiped underneath his glasses with his claws. He'd heard a sharp whistle from an extended part of the 'stands', and headed over. CS, though blurry, was standing there, papers and clipboard in one hand and a glass of concentrated magic in the other. eNeMeE was infinite, but sometimes he liked to enjoy the taste of liquid fear.

"Lord Hyness just got here, he's requesting you try and-"

"I don't know who that is and I don't care." eNeMeE plucked the tiny glass from CS and put the whole thing in his mouth. He spit the glass onto the floor, where it accelerated to the speed of a bullet in seconds. 

"If he wants to do things, how about you tell him to do it himself. I'm not his dog, he's not paying me, and he couldn't pay me enough to do whatever pea-brained thing he wants. He doesn't matter, I don't even know who he is. He can sit there like a good boy and watch me be amazing, like everyone else, as I rip Meta Knight from the Stars."

"Of course, sir." CS had already been flipping through the papers on his clipboard while eNeMeE talked. 

CS looked up at him after scribbling something on a paper, smiled curtly, then returned back into the safety of the stands. They were blocked off by thick and tough enchanted glass, which was getting progressively more scratched the longer eNeMeE's subjugation of Necrodeus's staff went on. Those magical winds were pretty sharp.

Audience or no audience, CS helping him or not, days, weeks, eNeMeE continued forward, tirelessly. There was something he wanted, and he was going to get it. It costed him nothing but his time, and when you had infinite of that, one could afford such a small task. He could break a object in, he would, he could. He broke so much, he destroyed and enslaved so many, a stick would not come out the better of the two of them.

It was far from physically exhausting, but the mental toll of doing something so dull and frustrating had gotten to him. On multiple occasions he'd almost slammed the staff into the ground, or against a wall, or tried to snap it in half like a pencil. Like that would do anything except just cause him more problems, and only just remove him further from his goal.

No one'd stopped him, the staff was fine. I mean, who'd want to try and talk some sense into a volatile and emotionally strung demon? 

CS once more whistled that demon over after eNeMeE had finished his latest tantrum, and spent the last few moments mentally heaving. CS looked him up and down as he'd approached his advisor, his expression some combination of dragged through some invisible mud and having just mauled someone he shouldn't have. 

"..So?" CS asked.

eNeMeE rumbled absently, keeping his hostility down in his throat. He'd looked off, down to the staff, and CS waited a second before daring to speak again.

"I think that for your own benefit, sir, you should take a break. Meta Knight won't get any more dead."

"But I'll get more bored!" eNeMeE whined. "You're boring! Everyone's boring! Everything's boring, Meta Knight's the only thing in the whole universe that isn't boring, and I need to get him back! You don't know what it's like, to be bored, it's so- UGH! You can't even comprehend anything, anything- that- you don't know, you just don't get it. You're too old and boring."

CS quirked a brow at that, newly humored as he said, "sir, you're as old as the universe."

"But I'm not boring." eNeMeE retorted. "I can't be bored, boring, anymore. Do you know how boring I was during the war? How bored I was? You don't know. You can't ever know how boring and bored I was. Meta Knight made life exciting, get it? You don't know how exciting it is, to torture and hurt a guy like that. There's nothing better, you're too soft to get it. You live to be as old as me, you get boring sometime, then you get not-boring, after long enough. I refuse to be bored again. Meta Knight's the only thing that'll help. Those warlords couldn't help, that war didn't help, that vacation didn't help, Necrodeus challenged me a little but it was boring! There was no emotion, it was just to- just to be annoying! It had no meat! No meat on the dramatic bone! It's all boring!"

CS stared at his boss, now a bit frenzied from the mini-speech, with an empty expression. Void of smile, it was more stern. 

"I've arranged for you to meet with one of our on-board therapists." CS braced himself.

" **NO**!" eNeMeE had roared in his face. "THERAPY IS FOR WEAKLINGS AND LIBERALS! I AM NOT WEAK. AND **ESPECIALLY** NOT A NASTY LIBERAL. YOU DO IT YOURSELF. I'M NOT GOING JUST BECAUSE YOU FEEL BAD THAT YOU HAVE TO."

CS inhaled deeply through his nose, trying to steady the surge of fear coursing through his veins. He saw eNeMeE gripping onto the staff tightly, as though CS were trying to take the whole operation away from him.

"You're going." CS held his ground.

eNeMeE would never do anything to hurt him. He's been angry at CS before, but it was all bark and no bite. That's all it's ever been, and this was no exception. At least, that's what CS probably hoped and rooted his entire belief in. He could be stern, commanding, demanding, with no backlash. None.

"Do you think you're more important than Meta Knight?" eNeMeE twitched as he loomed over his advisor. "Do you think you're better than him? Can you defend yourself? Can you fight and kill me?"

CS looked at the demon in disbelief, cautiously backing up. He didn't like what he was hearing, no, not at all. eNeMeE smiled from horn to horn, eating up the now apparent terror. Threats still managed to scare him, because now the context had changed. 

They'd all changed.

CS retreated back behind the glass, back through the small doorway as the wizard struggled to pull his wide, armored frame through. But the chase was half the fun, and he most certainly wasn't going to let him get away just because of a metal frame. He'd dropped the staff on his way, he'd get back to it. Right now, he needed both his hands to tear through the people in his way.

It was a blur of violence and laughing, of fear and terrified screaming, of people he didn't care for and would never bother to know. People trying to stop him, people trying to flee, they all thought they were better than him. Better than Meta Knight. They thought they could push him around, tell him what to do, just because. Just because they thought they knew better. They didn't, really. No one knew better than eNeMeE the truth of this universe. It was something he couldn't quite form on his tongue, it was pure emotion too raw to express, and it was way too deep and way too woke and epicly philosophical for anyone to get other than him.

He wasn't a sleeping threat, he was an active one, and only Meta Knight had cared about that. Only Meta Knight cared about him correctly, respected him, gave him what he was due. Meta Knight wouldn't treat him this way, he never treated eNeMeE this way. Only they had, and it was wrong. It was wrong, it was stupid, it was smug! Who did they think they were?

Who are they, again? Surely he could point them out in a crowd. It doesn't matter. They're his enemies. Not the substantial kind. The ones that treated him wrongly, but in a wrong way. Not like heroes, not like Meta Knight. Meta Knight was right to do what he was doing, to treat eNeMeE like an animal, to never let his guard down. eNeMeE was an animal. The first animal in the whole universe, bent on surviving and destroying. That's all he was, and that's how he was supposed to be treated, but they thought otherwise. They thought they could leash a feral monster.

As the now familiar red mist of bloodlust faded from eNeMeE's vision, he saw him squirm underneath a choking grasp. He was holding and clawing at the wizard's grip while those claws brutally sliced into the delicate flesh of his neck. It wasn't enough to strangle him, it was too gentle. It would be enough to make him bleed out. He seemed to know that with how he'd writhed. With enough force, a head could roll.

"You. You.." The beast was close, like a wolf to a man's neck, breathing out and in, deeply and heavily. "You're nothing. You've always been nothing. All you everyone- everyone do is- does is tell me what to do. I won't be told by you, by anyone- you don't- no one cares- no, not care. It's not caring, it's respect. Meta Knight respects me. He's the only one who's ever respected me. You hate me, everyone hates me, and you just pretend- you think you've got me. You think I'm stupid, that I'm a moron you can just tell- just- you have it in your little brain that I'm fine, that I'm safe. I'm not safe. I'll- I- you know, I-I have always been able to. Able to kill you. Everyone."

If he tightened any more, he was sure he could decapitate this man in one quick slice. His fingers were sharp enough. He was strong enough. He's always been strong enough. He wanted to. What a nice way to go, terrified and alone, after seeing all your defenses fall. 

"Help me," He croaked, "someone help me, please..! Help me!"

What a nice way to go. What a nice thing to do. How nice, very nice. Nothing wrong, it's evil. He's evil, it's fine for him to do. It's fine for him to do. They never mattered. He doesn't matter. He never mattered at all, he holds nothing, no value. He's fine to be betrayed. Getting betrayed, dying at the hands of your master despite being loyal.

Who's dying, again? Them?

CS? Is he dying? Who's killing him? 

eNeMeE withdrew. His hands were covered in the green of CS's blood, a nasty combination when the red of his healing magic pushed through it to get to the poor salesman. Looked like a used cuttingboard covered in relish, poor thing. It couldn't have been helped. It's just the way things are, aren't they? Huh? What? He doesn't really know what he's on about. Thinking about.

Once CS was stable, and eNeMeE had gotten off of him completely, he'd held at his neck with his hands. As if those tiny things would defend him from this demon, who seconds ago was about to have his life just because CS wanted him to do one thing.

"Don't." eNeMeE's teeth were sheen with spit and blood. "I don't want- Not you. No one. I just want to find Meta Knight."

"You're going to kill yourself, acting like this." CS murmured, voice hoarse.

"You're going to kill yourself if you don't shut your mouth." eNeMeE snapped back. "Don't speak. Your voice- words, they're- they are like sandpaper on my brain. Everything you say. Just stop. Stop."

CS shut up.

eNeMeE made his point.

CS knew he'd have to make his own.

* * *

"He will not be very happy if he wakes up." 

Susie Haltmann had advised shortly after pressing the large button, her father close by. CS had sighed, rubbing idly at his neck. He'd swore he'd felt phantom pains from the cuts, but he convinced himself it wasn't anything to worry about. Just remain calm, carry on, take any medication he was prescribed, and continue doing his job as normal.

"So long as your sedative works, we won't have to worry about that." 

Now that CS had been personally affected, the tides of battle had changed. The company was under threat by its own founder, and drastic measures had to be taken behind that founder's back. It was all for the company's good, and perhaps after eNeMeE was allowed to wake, he'd see it was for his own good too.

CS was probably saving everyone onboard by asking the Haltmanns for such a favor. They'd been so good to the company ever since they'd joined. One day, maybe, he'd repay them for their hard work in more ways other than their gargantuan paychecks. But probably not.

"How is the computer doing?" CS knew it'd been a little while, and with eNeMeE destined to be sleeping like a log now, they could progress with repairs and tests uninterrupted.

"The Mother Computer is repaired, and we're conducting extra-universal tests through it to find an adequate Meta Knight replacement. So far, none have exactly met eNeMeE's requirements. I would like to recommend that once we find a close enough replacement, that psychological 'reprogramming' is applied to him to make him into a perfect replica." Susie's polite demeanor would've chilled CS, considering the content of her words, had he thought less of her.

"I don't think that 'reprogramming' would be enough for eNeMeE. He wants a Meta Knight who's.." CS circled his hand around in the air as he searched for the words. "Unblemished by 'evil' or a lot of trauma. He needs to be.. I don't know, he just can't be tortured into it, is what I'm saying."

eNeMeE was enough of a freak that he'd probably lose his mind, knowing someone got to torture Meta Knight and he didn't. What is CS saying, there's not 'probably' about it, he'd absolutely lose his mind.

"Would a robot be enough?" The spectating Haltmann proposed.

"Robots break too easily for his liking." Susie rebutted. "He appreciates the simple things, like gore and flesh."

"Continue the work on that tube computer, I'm going to go find Dr. Moro and see if he can grow us a new one. We'll inject some artificial memories or something of that nature into him, and he'll be good to go." CS didn't know too much about the technology field, but if technology couldn't do it, they had some of the best mages in the universe to assist.

Susie scoffed. Haltmann kept quiet.

And behind those secure, locked doors in deep management, in a heavily fortified bedroom, eNeMeE was sleeping like a log. He was breathing despite the lack or need to, as enchanted air latched onto his form and anchored him into deep, boundless, dreamless sleep.

A necessary service to the universe, but a temporary one.

* * *

"Will you be okay?" 

Necrodeus had heard him out, and held onto his staff loosely. It wouldn't be too much to lose it, but to be given it back meant plenty to him. It was not beneath him to wonder for the wellbeing of mortals, though in the end, everything had some eventuality. Life was impermanent, of course, but current interactions were all the more meaningful for it.

"I don't want us to stay enemies. The work of my superior, it doesn't reflect.. Our company's values. He's emotional." 

CS was thankful that Necrodeus came to his call, all the way to the fortress. Of course, the guards were a bit apprehensive, but Necrodeus was never a volatile person in the first place. CS appreciated the relaxed attitude, even if his form was a bit frightening. 

"Are you going to be okay." Necrodeus repeated.

"I'm sure he won't understand, and I don't care to make him understand." CS ran a hair through his greying hair, idly. "I care that this business continues past me. He's too dangerous to keep awake, with how he is now."

They sat quiet for a moment. Necrodeus was a bit intimidating, which made CS hold his tongue up until now.

"When he wakes up, whenever that'll be.. When his body gets immunity to the drug- I want to ask you a favor."

"Getting rid of that clock means a lot less work for me. And all that stuff with that tube computer, I appreciate you're stopping that after our talk. I don't have anything else better to do, what do you want?"

"Please give him what he wants. And make sure he doesn't kill too many people."

"Why would he kill lots of people?"

"If I'm not dead by them, I'm probably going to make him kill me with all the things I'll say to him."

"Since you're letting the dead rest, finally, I'll see what I can do."

* * *

eNeMeE awoke with a pounding on the inside of his head. The blackness of his room was too bright, and the hum of the vents too loud. He pulled himself closer, put his blankets over his head, and wrapped himself tightly like he were a transformation-anxious caterpillar. He'd groaned under the dense sheets, healing himself as the grogginess and pain took away his thoughts.

It felt like he'd slept for an eternity, or somewhere close to that.

He dragged himself up and out of bed, taking all of his blankets with him. He saw nothing wrong with it. If someone had a problem with it, he could just tear their throat open. Maybe it would help keep his mind off his throbbing headache.

He would just go tell CS what he planned to do that day, then get back to work on that staff. Easy enough, that way he wouldn't be disturbed, and what happened yesterday wouldn't have the chance to happen again. Now that he'd rested, he was far less angry. At least, with the circumstance. He was more angry about how miserable he felt.

With a swift teleport, he was in the command center, though it was relatively empty.

"Where is he?" eNeMeE wondered.

He looked. He couldn't find him. He looked in the hallways. He couldn't find him. He couldn't find anyone, actually. Was this some sort of special surprise birthday party thing, again? CS knew how much eNeMeE hated that— and worse, it's not even his birthday.

He looked, and looked. And looked some more. He stumbled upon a few employees, thankfully, which eased his nerves. But they were too stupid and non-important to talk to. He just needed to find CS. Or one of his little pals.. Anyone would do, so long as they were smart enough. 

The halls were different. He couldn't find where anything was. It's like they'd remodeled the entire facility in just one night. Was that even possible? Considering the resources and manpower, probably.

eNeMeE eventually found where everyone was. There were posters.

Most of deep management was just at a party. Made sense. And oh boy, how horrified they all were when he burst in through the mahogany ballroom doors. The entire room was dressed to the nines, and everyone seemed to be having a perfectly wonderful time up until he'd invited himself in.

"Fun's over. Get back to work. I have a knight to resurrect, and.." eNeMeE rubbed his forehead as the blaring band music tore into his senses. He opened his cape, shooting a few explosive stars at the private orchestra. They scattered like roaches.

"I don't have time or the patience for this," eNeMeE closed his cape again, "get. Back. To work. Now. And someone get me my cat, now."

CS appeared from the crowd of suits and dresses, sporting.. A rather different look. He looked a bit more sinister, to put it lightly. A much more higher class suit, and some greying hair to match. How had he aged that much? Ew, he's all wrinkly.. Gross.. Perfect for a evil man of his favor, though! eNeMeE appreciated the commitment to looking even more unattractive than before.

"You look awful." eNeMeE smiled. "It's great. I knew you were the perfect pick for.. Whatever job it is you do."

"And you still.. Are you." 

CS sounded more worn out. Even his hands were wrinkled, the veins in his hands now more apparent. They ducked underneath the numerous rings on CS's fingers. They were all simple ones, nothing too extravegant. Not in eNeMeE's opinion, anyways.

Whatever sort of magic he casted on himself to rapidly age was certainly a good one. Though eNeMeE couldn't figure out why he wanted to do such a thing. After all, CS hated it whenever he was called ugly. Which he was. It's why he was even picked for his position in the first place.

eNeMeE didn't like being the only one.

"Why wouldn't I be me?" eNeMeE questioned, suspicious.

CS laughed, then shrugged. 

"You're just like how I remember you. Is it just 'yesterday' for you that I told you to go have a nap, so you could calm down?"

"Yeah."

Silence. CS expected eNeMeE to get something. He did not. CS exhaled out of his nose.

"That was not yesterday, eNeMeE."

"Stop being stupid."

"You were asleep for over two hundred years."

"No I wasn't."

"You were."

"This is a stupid and not really funny joke. Sorta, what, y'know.. The kids call 'cringe'? Take off the makeup, and go get that staff."

"eNeMeE," CS pinched his nose's bridge, "I was _hoping_ I'd be dead by the time you woke up, so Susie could deal with this, but.. Well, now I have to deal with it."

"Well, now you're just being rude. What did I do to deserve you being rude to me, huh?" eNeMeE rubbed his temples the best he could, feeling his blankets drop off of his back as he did. "I didn't do anything."

"You tried to kill me. You- You called me _worthless_." CS hissed. "You started a war because you wanted to cause problems, you cost this company billions, you couldn't care less about the people around you, and, you- you're a danger to everyone around you! You terrorized me, you made me babysit you, you stole the entire _latter half of my life from me_ with your-!"

"That was your job! You're angry at me because you had a job to do!?" 

Everyone else in the room felt the tension boiling over, and they knew they had to get out before they were caught in the crossfire. They left out the secondary doors, of course, no one wanted to run past eNeMeE. Some stayed, though, if only to document the outcome.

"I'm angry because you made my job all about you! You tanked economies on a whim! You're a drama queen and a moron!"

"I thought you were my ally. You were conspiring against me this whole time."

"I resented you. It's different." CS's face switched to a pleasant smille, and a pleasant teacher-like tone. "Not conspiring. _Resenting_. And I know everyone else here feels the same. Everyone resents you, because you're stupid."

"You need me." 

eNeMeE's fists, balled, sparked as he left his cape open to wave in unfeelable wind. CS had felt this whole time, the whole company had felt like this. eNeMeE knew it, of course. He's evil, he's made to be resented. He's not angry about it. He shouldn't be angry about it. 

He approached. 

"I don't." CS stood strong.

"The company needs me." eNeMeE insisted.

"It doesn't."

"Who else is going to be there for you to make monsters?"

"Dr. Moro and his department."

"No one can fight off things like I can." eNeMeE laughed, almost bewildered. "I'm immortal, invulnerable!"

"We don't need to fight if there's no more wars."

"There's always wars."

"Not anymore."

"You're lying."

A single hand clamped around CS's neck, thrusting him up into the air. CS dangled before clinging to the fingers to keep himself from asphyxiating. eNeMeE was searching for something, anything to latch onto. To say something more, to uproot CS.

This old man, the one who resembled the person he'd spent so much time with, listened to him, and dealt with him. Why is eNeMeE so mad over being insulted by him? It was an eventuality. It was the norm. But he rejected it anyways.

"Would killing me make you happy, huh?" CS's rough hand clasped onto the wizard's fingers tightly.

"You're nothing without me." eNeMeE couldn't help but emphasize it. He needed to hold onto that idea, that he was a king piece. CS was just a queen. He's never been very good at chess, but he was sure the king was better. "You're just another mortal. I'll outlive you. You're disposable, just like the rest of them. Killing you won't make me happy. Only Meta Knight could ever make me happy by dying."

"You sure aren't happy, though, are you? Have you ever been happy?"

eNeMeE bared down at CS. He wiped under his glasses with his free hand. It just hurt, the lights. The lights just hurt him. He was still feeling bad from waking up. He was.

"I've been happy. I'm healthy, happy, and evil. I've always been that since the war. Ended. When I got Meta Knight. When I killed him. Unlike you pathetic mortals, I don't have the capacity for sadness, for grief. I don't grieve. I wouldn't, anyways, I have no reason to."

"Sure." CS sounded unconvinced.

"I don't grieve." eNeMeE repeated.

His grip tightened around CS. His underling stared through him. It infuriated him. What was he supposed to do? Was CS betraying him? Or did he just resent him? Was that the same? Yes. Yes, that's the same. It's the same. He wanted eNeMeE to be in pain.

"And I'm not going to grieve over you." The demon promised.

"You're delusional. You should've just gone to therapy."

"Die."

"Then kill me."

Was there anything to miss here? Was there? Something had to be missed. Something, anything, so many things.. How many years, how many hours, how much time could just be shot away from this interaction? How easy would it be to say it was all worthless in the grand scheme? Did he want this the whole time? Why? What did he do to him? Why was he doing this to him? What's the problem? He didn't give him a reason to do this. So why? Huh? 

Maybe-

"Soft." CS smiled. It was like a shot through the head.

eNeMeE slammed him down into the ground, hearing a satisfying snap of a spine. A gruesome and satisfying yowl of pain escaped him. eNeMeE watched him, hoping for anything else. He got nothing.

"Cat." eNeMeE's hands turned red. "I won't let you die until I've said you're allowed to. I want something better than that out of you."

CS gasped to life, and eNeMeE could feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest through the cold steel of his hand.

"Do you care about anyone here, huh?" eNeMeE pressed harder against the catman's body. "Do you care for anyone? I'll kill them. I don't care about them."

eNeMeE didn't have the capacity to care. That's why he kept CS alive. He didn't care, and he wanted him alive to see the carnage. If he cared, he would've let him die a merciful, sweet and simple death. But he didn't. So now he gets mentally tortured. Yay!

"You felt death. Your loved ones, their deaths won't be so soft."

"I don't love anyone." CS mumbled. "I love myself. So good luck, Nightmare, because you can't kill me."

A hesitant pause. The use of eNeMeE's real name made him feel like a kid who just got called their full name by an angry parent. 

"Why do you hate me so much?" eNeMeE wondered.

"You tried to kill me."

eNeMeE searched for the words to say next, slightly caught. Okay, yeah, maybe it's natural to hold a grudge after eNeMeE tried to strangle him, and threatened to kill him, yeah.. Still, he healed him. It should've been fine. eNeMeE fixed him. He could've- no, _should've_ gotten over it by now.

"Did you hate me before that?"

"Yes."

"Why?" eNeMeE hated that he sounded genuinely confused, he felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. "I didn't do anything to you. I helped you. I saved you. I did everything you could've ever wanted, and now you're telling me I'm useless, that you replaced me, that you don't need me?"

"You're lazy. And a freak."

He didn't want to hear anymore. Learn anymore. He unhanded CS, and straightened himself out. He inhaled and exhaled deeply. 

"Did you at least get Meta Knight back for me..?" eNeMeE'd asked it, knowing the answer.

"No. We stopped trying to get a new version for you a long time ago. Necrodeus raided the base and stole his staff back. We didn't care enough to keep it, anyways."

"Track him down for me. I'll come back and deal with.. You. And.. All this."

"..Sure."

* * *

Necrodeus, live in the bone. Out in space, all alone. Just how eNeMeE had wanted him. He'd been brought out, somehow. eNeMeE needed only to kill him again, take his staff, and get back to work. Meta Knight was the priority. Maybe Meta Knight could kill CS for him. That'd be a relief.

"I was expecting you, y'know. I want to show you something." Necrodeus sounded civil.

"I don't care."

"You will care. I'm going to bring you to the guy you want to see."

Oh, that's an instant mood lifter. eNeMeE examined Necrodeus's face for any sign of trickery, but he was a skeleton, and didn't lend himself very well to any sort of emotional tells. Necrodeus snapped his thick fingers, and in an instant, a portal ripped open in the vacuum of space. Flickering with blue fire at the edges of the portal, within was a bright, pastel world, yellow and glamorous.

Tall buildings and marble columns, luxurious clothing and peaceful, happy laughter.. It boiled his nonexistant blood, and flicked on his anxious desire to annihilate. Everything he despised, everything he sought to destroy.. All through that portal. 

People were there.

"Where is that?" eNeMeE gestured at the rip.

"The Stars. Or the afterlife, whatever. Where the good people and Star Warriors end up when they die. Buddy, I'm just going to tell you now, that place is not friendly to people like you."

eNeMeE snorted at Necrodeus's warning and pushed through into the new realm. The air stung him in an instant, like a thousand angry bees bearing down on him. It was fire like a Star Rod, it was a killing and fatal feeling that sparked the dread of losing power. 

He was tempted to back out. But he couldn't. Meta Knight was in there. He sparked his healing magic, holding it close to himself to keep the pain from bearing down on him as he searched, passing by. There were so many people. Too many people, and the realm was too large. It all made his 'skin' crawl as the figures passed by him, smiles wide upon their faces. Maybe they were just unaquainted with him and were too.. Too, uh.. Uhm.. It's, where is he going? Wait, was that? Uh..

The pain was beginning to hasten his thoughts, make them more into actions rather than words.

"Do you want me to help you look?" Necrodeus, who'd followed him silently asked.

"You will help me look or I'll destroy you."

"You have such a way with words." Necrodeus rolled his eyes.

Necrodeus floated much faster than eNeMeE could. It felt like the very space itself desired to push against him; push him out. He didn't belong there, and it wanted to protect its inhabitants. How noble. Necrodeus saw him lagging behind and grabbed eNeMeE by his hand, only for the metal demon to rip it out instantly. 

" _Don't_ touch me." He snarled, backing off and keeping his hand close.

"You're being slow. You're going to die in here if you go at that pace." Necrodeus obviously just wanted this over with as fast as possible. So, instead, he grabbed eNeMeE by the arm, which looked a lot less friendly. Surprisingly, the wizard was more fine with that.

Necrodeus, as a guide, was awful. He showed no landmarks, he gave no details, nothing. He just moved with a passion, and he was rough about handling the tourist. It was very rude, not very courteous, and frankly not educational. One star.

But they arrived, nonetheless. In the middle of a field, golden like wheat, sat on a picnic blanket sharing a basket of unblemished and un-bruised fruits with two other people, was Meta Knight. They just watched as Necrodeus trudged forward, suffering demon in tow. He shoved eNeMeE in front of him, to see Meta Knight staring up at him. He was pink-eyed. His friends, they all had pleasant, calm smiles on their face.

"Meta Knight." eNeMeE croaked, overwhelmed.

"eNeMeE." 

Meta Knight sounded like he was greeting an old friend. That wasn't right. He floated back. It was unnatural.

"What's.. Wrong with you?" eNeMeE asked the knight first, but he figured Necrodeus would probably know more, so he looked to him for guidance. "What's wrong with him?"

"In the Stars, you're promised eternal happiness. They can't feel anything else other than happiness and peace."

"Well, I'll fix that. I'll fix him. I'll show him suffering again." eNeMeE assured himself. 

It would be much more fun this way! He could break Meta Knight down all over again, and he didn't even have to build him back up in the first place! All the work was done for him!

Though, as eNeMeE's fingertips touched Meta Knight, the knight's skin serrated the wizard's claws like hot, jagged blades. eNeMeE yowled in pain as the agony seared up through his arm and entire body, feeling eerily similar to being tapped with a weapon like the Star Rod. He held onto his own hand while Necrodeus held him in place, trying to keep him from flailing.

"Did that hurt?" Meta Knight sounded so gleeful, and mock curious. "I really do hope you get a wound worse than that before you leave." 

"I guess you can be happy and still hold a grudge up here, though." Necrodeus learned something new. This trip truly was educational for all of them.

eNeMeE steeled himself easily and lunged for Meta Knight, trying to slice him, kill him, but he'd only ended up injuring himself further. Necrodeus, of course, let him. Meta Knight's purple friend and maroon friend just sat and watched. Meta Knight laughed the whole time, like it were a game. All of them were having a fun time. Was it not fun to have this happen, to watch it all fruitlessly unfold, to watch something slip from evil's grasp?

eNeMeE had collapsed in the golden field, curling in on himself and turning into an orb. He tried ramming into Meta Knight like that, but even still, he couldn't harm him. He couldn't do anything, and he'd yelled and screamed to let it out, the whole realm shaking from his rage. But even still, those happy looks didn't fade, and he still couldn't grab Meta Knight.

He couldn't give up. Pain, agony, nothing, none of it mattered. He was an animal. He could power through it to get his prey, what he deserved, what he needed. And it was right there. He was right there. eNeMeE just wasn't trying hard enough, he was letting it slip through his grasp. Meta Knight always did, but no, no, no, why now? Why now? He'd- He was- He needed to get him. Meta Knight was his. He wasn't going to leave without him. He couldn't. What was life without him? Why had he spent so many hours toiling with that blasted staff, that computer, that everything, if not to just get him?

Why was he failing? Why couldn't he just win? Why? _Why_? 

"He's so close. He's right there." eNeMeE wheezed, tending to his dissipating metal and magic. The fight had shrunk him dramatically. He was getting to be as small as Meta Knight from losing all his valuable magic.

Why did everything have to be stacked against him? Why did he have to let it blow past him here, now, of all times and all places? He couldn't even touch him, he couldn't get him, why? Why? 

"Okay, buddy, you've had enough. Time to go."

Necrodeus opened a portal, much like he had before. Only this time, because it was in space, the harsh vacuum grabbed onto eNeMeE. Normally he would've been fine, unaffected. But the entire dimension wanted him out, and pushed against him to get him out. Not to mention, Necrodeus had grabbed onto his cape and was literally trying to drag him out like a bouncer pulling a drunk guy out of a bar.

"No! No! You will NOT take this from me! He's mine!" 

eNeMeE cried out, clawing desperately at anything he could hold onto. Which was just the ground. The holy soil itself was like lemon juice into his wounds. Meta Knight watched on in what could only be called innocent, well-mannered justice-filled joy. 

Meta Knight was so close.

He was right there. 

Right infront of him. So close he could bite him, and take him back in his teeth.

"I. You- I can't, I don't.. You.. Come back with me. You need to come back with me. Meta Knight- the- I- the universe is empty without you. I don't have anyone. I need you, I need to fight you. I need to. No one else is as important as you to me, I should've- no. You know, longer, should've let you live more. Help me. Help _you_. I need more. More of you."

Why? No, no, no.. Just.. He couldn't, he had to- to, Meta Knight- he- it was- no, no-

"No," eNeMeE wavered, like a distorted record, "you- y-you can't leave me alone. Meta Knight, **please**."

"I'd say it's sad you're begging, but I couldn't be happier. You deserve this. Suffer." 

Meta Knight ground the heel of his golden boot into the demon's face, threatening to burn a hole through his glasses and head. But Meta Knight had pushed him, Necrodeus had pulled him, and eNeMeE was forced out, and the portal shut. 

Left behind were claw marks marring the ground. All Meta Knight had to do was shift the dirt with his foot, and it was like eNeMeE hadn't violated the sanctity of the Stars at all. And, with a quick trot back to Garlude and Jack, they continued their nice, funny little conversation like nothing had even interrupted it in the first place.


End file.
